


heaven in hiding

by hyejuul



Category: LOONA (Korea Band), Weeekly (Korea Band)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Call Of Duty AU, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Implied Sexual Content, It ends happy I promise, Suicidal Thoughts, Torture, im sorry hyejoo, ot12 loona - Freeform, ot7 weeekly, other cameos - Freeform, rated m for violence/heavy topics, very sad though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:53:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 74,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27729067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyejuul/pseuds/hyejuul
Summary: Seven years ago, the world turned to a war ground. Countries turned against each other, and government systems went to war with each other within the same country. The remaining population, which is somewhat unknown, is divided into two companies: Sentinel and Atlas.Like the flap of a butterflies wings, the meeting of two soldiers creates a series of events that no one could prepare for.Kim Hyunjin is just another soldier, but her role in the war is much more important than she could have imagined.
Relationships: Ha Sooyoung | Yves/Jung Jinsol | Jinsoul, Jeon Heejin/Kim Hyunjin, Kim Jiwoo | Chuu/Kim Jungeun | Kim Lip, Park Chaewon | Go Won/Son Hyejoo | Olivia Hye
Comments: 20
Kudos: 132





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, ladies, gents, and thudes. I wrote this 6 years ago as a fan of the US women's soccer team and I never finished it until now. I did my best to fix it because I really have no motivation to completely rewrite it, so if it's bad or cringe, just know those are the parts written by a 13 year old. 
> 
> !!!Here are your CW and TW!!!: Suicidal Thoughts, Physical and Psychological Torture, Death in general, and, of course, War. If there's something I missed please let me know and I'll be sure to put it here and in the tags!
> 
> I do hope you all like it though. It's 25 chapters and all of them are complete so no worries about this getting abandoned. How everyone reacts to the first few chapters will warrant how often I post it, but I'm thinking every 3 days or so will keep everyone on their toes. It moves pretty fast because I didn't know how to write time very well back then but I did what I could to salvage it. 
> 
> Anyway, on with the show! I hope you enjoy it, please give me constructive criticism on it I promise I won't get upset, and if there's anything you guys want me to change or anything let me know.

-

Seven years ago, the world turned to a war ground. Countries turned against each other, and government systems went to war with each other within the same country. The remaining population, which is somewhat unknown, is divided into two companies: Sentinel and Atlas.

Atlas is mostly made of the corrupt officials, ex-military, and what's left of the American government. Their system is cruel and unfair, but people still continue to work for them. Nobody really knows why, maybe because it’s all they have? They don't know any better? No one knows.

The Sentinels are mostly a group of rebels fighting back against Atlas. They fight back when they can, going on covert missions to find their data, destroy their plans, and take down their leaders.

Currently, Hyunjin is on her way to the Golden Gate Bridge where an extraction team will recover stolen data and any supplies from an abandoned base. Atlas has been known to scout around the area, so her nerves are on edge about the mission. She doesn't really have a reason to be nervous, she's been doing this for six years now and she has the best team in the entire Sentinel company. Her best friend, Sooyoung, is sitting next to her on the helicopter as she habitually cleans the arms of her Exo Suit.

"Are you nervous?" Hyunjin asks Sooyoung as she stares out at the open water. Things seem almost normal, though Hyunjin doesn't really know what normal feels like anymore.

"As always", Sooyoung laughs coldly.

"Sooyoung", across from Hyunjin, Jinsol is giving Sooyoung a scolding look. Being Sooyoung's girlfriend means dealing with her negative attitude about the war. Hyunjin knows Jinsol doesn't mind, and her positive outlook on things has helped Sooyoung in a lot of ways.

"I just don't understand why it's only us on this mission"

"The fewer people we have the quicker we'll be out. Plus, with a smaller team there's less of a chance we'll get shot", Hyunjin tells her, scowl on her face.

"Wonderful way of looking at it, Hyun"

The helicopter jerks around for a second before Jiwoo's voice comes through the speakers, "The landing zone is a little hot but I haven't seen anything on the radar for a while so you should be good for a quick in and out. Haseul said to get the data, search any of the remaining rooms for supplies, and then get out. There's a storm brewing somewhere along the coast and I would appreciate it if we didn't have to go back home in it"

"You got it, let's get this thing done", Sooyoung stands up and unlocks the door, jumping down before the heli even hits the concrete.

"I really hope she doesn't get herself killed", Jinsol mumbles.

"We'll be fine, just get in and get out", Hyunjin pulls her rifle from her back and checks her Exo Suit readings.

"You ready?" Jinsol asks.

"Yeah", with a press of a button all of their Exo Suits shift into battle mode and their helmets twist and pull down over their faces.

Hyunjin takes one more deep breath before launching off the helicopter after Sooyoung and Jinsol.

-

"This place is a literal shithole. There's barely anything working, how did they even manage to store our data here?"

They had been searching for a good ten minutes, only coming up with minimal supplies and no luck with the trashed computers. Everything was mostly rubble, holes in the tall ceiling and thick walls proved it. There had been a few dead bodies lying around, all of them had been Atlas so Hyunjin took the chance to go through their Exo Suits for data. She had come up with nothing but maps upon maps, which were useful but not as useful as their missing data.

"It has to be somewhere, it's not like they could keep it floating in midair"

Hyunjin's head flings up from looking at the trashed screens, "Sooyoung, you're a genius"

She turns around from her spot in the rubble, "You don't think they actually-"

"It's the only way they could've hidden it from us. They know we're smart enough to check the computers, or what's left of them, and to check any of the stuff they left behind. But I'm telling you, they think they're above everyone so they don't expect us to find it when it's literally hanging over our heads", she scrambles around the panels trying to find a button, or anything really that looks like it would do something different than what they’ve been doing.

Hyunjin hears Jinsol mumble something but the distortion of her helmet keeps her from hearing it, "Did you say something Jinsol?"

She sighs, "I found something, but I don't know if it will show us something or blow us to pieces"

Hyunjin walks over to her and moves to look under the panels like she is. A large, red, but somehow discreet button, is placed just above one of the panels. There aren’t any instructions or writing next to it, so pressing it would be dangerous. The probability of it just blowing up was slim though.

"Alright, Jinsol get behind something. I'll press it with my foot and if it blows you get out of here. If it doesn't, then maybe we have our data", Jinsol gets up from under the screen and stands next to Sooyoung on the other side of the room.

"On my mark", Hyunjin moves so her foot is just barely touching the button, "Three, two, one-"

She smashes her foot against the button, immediately covering her head but no explosion goes off, and the air is filled with silence.

_Oh god, have I died?_

"Hyunjin, you should look at this", she lifts her head up from under her arms and is struck by excitement.

The empty air is now filled with holograms of streaming data, maps, and files. Hyunjin stands up and walks to the middle of the data cube, watching as it trails over her skin. The room is darker around the edges now, the projection of the data glowing brightly at the three soldiers.

“Woah” is all they can say.

"How do you think we can get the data?"

"I have no idea", Hyunjin continues spinning in the middle as an endless amount of data streams in the air.

"Welcome, how may I assist you?" A voice sounds through the air, causing the three soldiers to pull their rifles from their backs.

"What the hell was that?" Jinsol whispers.

"My name is Odd Eye, the AI of this program. How may I assist you?" The voice echoes through the air again.

"An AI? Since when has Atlas started using AI's?" Sooyoung mutters to no one in particular.

"Two years ago, when the Atlas program created the first one and used it as a commanding unit", Odd Eye replies.

"That is not good, that is not good at all", Jinsol whispers.

"How can we get this data?" Hyunjin finally asks the AI.

"Please specify"

"The data streaming right here in front of us, in the middle of the air"

"How did you get access to this data?"

"I pressed a stupid red button under one of the data screens. How can I download it to my software and destroy it here?" Hyunjin grows agitated.

"One moment please", silence, "Data streaming in process. Seven minutes remaining. Self-destruct will take place immediately after"

"Well, that was easy", Sooyoung finally relaxes and places her gun back on her suit.

_"Hate to be a party pooper here guys, but there are four enemies headed towards the base, and fast",_ Jiwoo's voice cracks through Hyunjin's helmet.

"Atlas?"

"No, definitely scavengers or another rebel group. The cameras around the area are showing four females, one of them looks really young. I wouldn't try to kill them"

"How long until they're on the outer perimeter?"

"Two minutes tops"

"Dammit", Hyunjin runs a hand over her smooth helmet, "The data stream has six minutes left"

"Looks like you're gonna have to fight then"

"Odd Eye, can you hide the data projection and continue streaming while we look around?"

"Of course, moving projection now"

The room grows dark as the data flashes away, but a glow from Hyunjin's Exo Suit tells her the data is still streaming.

"We can go ahead and set up behind those crates and take them out quickly or we can take stealth positions and take them out one by one", Hyunjin whispers to her teammates.

"Why don't we try to take them in?" Sooyoung asks.

"What if they're Atlas spies? They could have just sent them out here to trick us just so they can get into our base", Jinsol snarls back.

"Jiwoo said they weren't Atlas, the cameras around the area prove it. I say taking them in is a good idea, the more people we have the better we'll get"

"Fine, but if this goes to shit, I'm blaming you two"

-

"Come on Yeojin, we're almost there"

"You said that ten minutes ago Heejin, when are we actually gonna be there?"

"Just quit complaining and keep running, I promise you we're almost there", Heejin picks up her pace a little, which seems impossible since her group has been running for the past hour now.

Their trucks broke down outside the Fremont city border, and now they were on foot. She knows she saw a building on the other side of the bridge but getting there without someone complaining seemed pretty unlikely. Her team trusted her though, so they started running on the highway a couple of miles back. Lucky for them, the building was now in sight and they just had to climb over a fence to get inside.

"Thank god", Hyejoo bends over her knees to catch her breath as the group comes to a stop.

"Yeojin, you go first", Heejin brings her hands down so Yeojin can jump over.

"Make Vivi go first, I need to catch my breath", Yeojin bends down next to Hyejoo as Vivi walks past her and jumps over the fence.

When all four of them are over the fence, they pull their rifles out and start searching the area.

Vivi manages to find ammo and parts under the rubble near the building, but it's not enough for the long journey Heejin has planned.

They stop just at the edge of the destroyed building, Heejin scans her eyes over the many outlet buildings on the outside, managing to find a good vantage point from the one in the middle. When the team reaches the top, they can see the water lapping onto the shore.

"What do you think the building used to be?" Yeojin cuts the silence.

Heejin continues looking around until her eyes land on a crest at the entrance door, "Atlas"

She jumps down quickly, running to the entrance door and kicking it in.

"Heejin what the hell are you doing?" Vivi yells back at her.

"Just follow me and stay close"

"This could be a trap for all we know", Hyejoo manages to catch up to Heejin and pulls her back behind some crates.

"We just need to find some supplies and leave, if this is a trap, we'll deal with it but so far there's been nothing to tell us that it is"

"That's kind of how traps work Heejin", Yeojin whispers, her face fashioning an incredulous look.

Heejin's eyes narrow, "Just shut up and come on, we'll make it quick"

The other three girls are quiet, so Heejin nods and continues walking into the large circular room. To the right of the room is another door that leads outside, and another one straight ahead. The room is trashed with rubble and broken computers, only one console seems to be working but the screen is cracked beyond repair.

"Hey, I found some first aid over here", Heejin hears Yeojin yell from another room.

Her eyes travel up to the roof of the building, scanning over all the possible places a camera could be. The roof has tons of holes, but the light barely travels into the dark room.

"Am I the only one that feels like we're being watched?" Vivi asks the group.

"You say that everywhere we go", Hyejoo snarls and pushes a piece of rubble off of a pile.

" _Hyejoo_ ", Heejin warns, but a large crash from a different room stops her.

"What was that?"

"Where's Yeojin?" The three pull their rifles out and start walking towards the room Yeojin was in.

The room is just more rubble and more broken consoles, but Yeojin is nowhere in sight. Heejin feels like she's being watched also, which isn't helping her anxiety about Yeojin.

"Yeojin?" Heejin whispers.

As soon as she takes another step, she notices the outline of a large body coming out of a hiding spot and starts shooting at the same time that Vivi realizes as well.

"Atlas!", Vivi yells and jumps up to start shooting.

"Why does everyone think we're god damn Atlas?" Heejin hears a voice say from the other side of the room.

She still can't see where Yeojin is, if she's even on the other side of the room. Heejin and Hyejoo set up their rifles and start shooting, catching glimpses of armor running around behind the rubble. Heejin waits until she gets another glimpse and pulls her trigger, but she doesn't hit anything. Bullets continue flying everywhere, Heejin is sure she's gonna have some hearing damage after this little battle, if she lives.

"Cover me, I'm gonna reload and move farther up", Heejin whispers to Hyejoo.

Hyejoo nods so she reloads and takes a deep breath before springing out of cover and closer to her new enemies. Someone comes out of the cover in front of Heejin and she's about to pull the trigger, but she looks at their face and she loses all the feeling in her body. The girl in front of her is gorgeous beyond belief, long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, perfectly chiseled jawline, glowing cat-like eyes, and lips that Heejin probably wouldn't mind being on her own.

_'Focus Jeon!'_

Heejin quickly shakes her head and pulls her rifle up to shoot but the girl already has hers up.

"Wait!" She yells.

The room grows silent as bullets stop flying.

"Where is my sister", Heejin growls behind clenched teeth.

"We didn't hurt her, I promise. We just want to talk", Heejin laughs coldly at the girl's request.

"Give me Yeojin and maybe we will"

"Sooyoung", she yells behind her without taking her eyes off of Heejin.

Heejin watches another girl come out of cover with Yeojin next to her.

"Heejin, it's okay. They're Sentinels, they can help us", Yeojin jogs up next to Heejin, pushing down on her rifle until it's no longer pointing at the other soldier.

"I don't care who they are Yeojin, we're fine on our own"

"But they can protect us from Atlas, you know how much other rebel groups talk about them"

"Yeah, and they talked about Atlas too and you see how that went", Heejin snaps, pulling her rifle back up to aim at the girl.

"Heejin", Yeojin steps in front of the barrel of Heejin's gun, "Sentinel isn't like Atlas and you know it"

It was true. Ever since they escaped Atlas, they'd heard nothing but good things about Sentinel. Other rebel groups lost members to them because of how good their military program was rumored to be, but people talked about Atlas the same way. Heejin takes a look at the girl behind Yeojin, seeing nothing but sincereness behind her eyes. Her eyes traveled to the other two girls, the black-haired one had slight puppy eyes, but the girl with the bob cut was glaring at Heejin with her eyebrow raised.

Heejin looked back to the girl behind Yeojin, who she seemed drawn to, and lowered her gun once more, "Fine, what's this deal of yours?"

"Well, we're not exactly supplied with the information to uh, keep you safe per se but the people back at our base can fill you in on all of it"

Heejin scoffs, "So you want us to go to your base so you can _‘fill us in’_ "

"If you think we're gonna do anything to hurt you-", the shorter girl in the back starts but Heejin just laughs.

"Oh, I do"

"Tell you what, you come with us and I can promise we won't hurt you. If you don't believe us, we'll lock up all of our weapons. After you go through our interview process and hear our deal and you still don't trust us, you can pack your bags up again and head out", cat-eye girl, who Heejin has now named, explains.

She considers the possibilities. They were pretty nice, considering they were just shooting at each other a couple of minutes ago. Yeojin was giving Heejin her puppy eyes, which just made Heejin cave even more.

"Fine", Yeojin cheers up but Heejin cuts her off, "But if I get the slightest feeling that you're tricking us we're leaving"

"You got it", cat eyes smiles largely.

"Not to damper anyone’s mood, but-“

"Warning. Tsunami approaching. Move to higher ground", a robotic voice echoes through the room.

Heejin and her team pull their guns put, but cat-eye girl and her team stay still with wide eyes.

“Damn, beat me to it”

"Shit"

"What the hell is that?" Hyejoo asks.

"Odd Eye, the AI in this station", the tall girl answers.

"It still works?"

"Apparently so"

_"Uh Hyunjin, you might wanna hurry to the chopper. Those waves are rolling fast, and this platform is only a couple yards off the ground",_ Jiwoo's voice cracks through Hyunjin's earpiece.

"We need to get going, follow us", she takes off down the hall and through a set of double doors.

A window near the exit shows Hyunjin how close the waves are so she picks up her pace and takes a sharp left in the cylinder room. The ceiling becomes low again, water is starting to trickle inside the building by the exit. All of the girl's feet echo through the building, making Hyunjin run even faster as waves start lapping at her feet.

"Jiwoo, open the doors!" Hyunjin yells as the group finally gets out of the building.

They travel up the hill a bit before swinging around another smaller building and heading down towards the chopper. The doors begin opening as the chopper slowly lifts off the ground. The waves have reached the beach on the lower ground, lapping up intensely against the sides of the buildings. Hyunjin reaches the chopper and jumps in quickly, followed by Sooyoung and Yeojin.

"Start lifting, Jiwoo", Hyunjin yells through the small door to the cockpit, "Jinsol let's go!"

Jinsol quickly jumps up and grabs onto the edge of the chopper, Sooyoung pulling her up as Hyunjin and Yeojin help the other girls up. The older girl almost misses the edge of the chopper but Hyunjin helps pull her up. Heejin and the other girl are still running towards the chopper, the waves now crashing against their ankles. The darker haired girl reaches the edge first, she has to jump directly up to catch Yeojin's grip and Hyunjin doesn't think Heejin is going to make it if she doesn't hurry. Heejin seems to pick up her speed and jumps to grab the ledge, but Hyunjin can tell she's off by a couple of inches. She quickly slides across the metal floor and reaches out to Heejin as she realizes she missed the ledge. When the two girls grab onto each other Heejin's legs are hanging off the ground, but the waves are crashing against her. Hyunjin uses all of her strength to pull Heejin up, almost losing her grip but quickly recovering. By the time the two collapse on the floor the chopper's doors are closing and they're flying off to the base.

"Thanks", Heejin huffs out, causing Hyunjin to smile.

She lays her head back down onto the chopper’s metal floor and breathes out.

_Well. This day certainly took an interesting turn._


	2. II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna start posting a chapter a day until it (hopefully) kicks off and gains more traction, then move to once every two days. Thank you to everyone who has read so far! I'm super excited :)

-

"So, what's your name?" Sooyoung starts.

Heejin rolls her eyes, "Seriously? I have to go through this again?"

"It's just protocol", Hyunjin chimes in calmly.

"Fine, Jeon Heejin"

"Who are your team members?"

"Wong Vivi, Im Yeojin, and Son Hyejoo"

"Any deceased?"

"Sooyoung", Jinsol and Hyunjin whisper sharply, they hadn't expected Sooyoung to ask that.

"It's fine", Heejin smiles gently at Hyunjin and Jinsol, "My boyfriend, Hansol, was shot and killed last year"

Sooyoung goes pale and Jinsol sinks farther into her chair, "Sorry for your loss"

"Shit happens during the war", Heejin whispers, "Am I done yet?"

"Uh, almost just let me-", Sooyoung scrambles with her papers a bit, "So it says here that you and your team took three vehicles from Atlas; a stolen U-Haul that you managed to make into a makeshift camper, a city transportation bus that you did the same thing with, and a heavy-duty F-250 truck. Is that correct?"

"Yes"

"It also says that you had a traveling journal with dates and significant data. Is that correct?"

"Yes, but as a side note I don't appreciate you going through my things without my permission"

"Right, sorry about that", Sooyoung looks at Hyunjin and she knows she's about to break the deal to them, "So you've survived this entire war alongside Atlas, managed to escape from their company, and stayed on the road for two years without getting caught by them or shot down by other rebels. Quite remarkable if you ask me, so uh-"

"Sooyoung, are you sure we wanna do this?" Jinsol cuts in suddenly.

Hyunjin mentally slaps her forehead as they go back and forth, "Uh yeah, Haseul's orders and it was our idea"

"What are you talking about?" Heejin asks and the two of them go quiet once again.

"Well, what we're trying to ask you is-"

"Sooyoung we haven't even asked her yet"

"Yeah, but I was about to before you cut in"

"Really? You're gonna blame me?"

"I'm not blaming you I'm just saying-"

"Our superiors started talking and they want you to join the company as military", Hyunjin cuts them both off and stares directly at Heejin.

Confusion spreads over Heejin's face before morphing into disbelief as she realizes Hyunjin is serious, "Military?"

"Yes, to be a part of our intelligence also. You've proven yourself strong on the fighting side, and your files say you're ex-militants"

Heejin seems to get angry and now Hyunjin is scared she's said the wrong thing, "This is ridiculous, you didn't say anything about joining your military. You think you aren't like Atlas at all, but you are, we don't need your help. We survived two years and we can survive more being on our own"

"We’re nothing like Atlas", Sooyoung snaps.

"Yeah, that's what they told us before they tried to use us for experiments and bait"

"Sentinels don't do experiments or use bait. We try to survive, and we fight back against Atlas"

"And how am I supposed to trust you with that when we couldn't trust Atlas?"

"Because we're not Atlas", this was going downhill very fast and Sooyoung was getting angry.

"Will you at least listen to the offer we're giving you? You said you'd consider back at the Atlas base", Hyunjin tries to chime in and puts a hand on Sooyoung’s arm.

Heejin seems to consider as she settles back in her seat, "Well, you did drag me all the way out here so why not?"

"Thank you", Hyunjin nods to Sooyoung and her tension settles a little, "You and your team would be put through a small training course to see where you would be useful. We would try to keep you together, but if someone has more skills in a different area, we split you up and put you at different tasks. We’re a part of a special task force in Sentinel called EDEN, we think all of you would fit in quite well with your skills. You'll be given your own living quarters; you don't even have to eat with the rest of us in the cafeteria if you don't want to. Your privacy and your rights will not be ignored, and we'll try to give you the best we have while you're here with us. If you decide you want to leave, you can pack your stuff and go. But if we find out you've been spying or anything of that sort, we will be forced to detain you. We could use people like you Heejin, it's just a matter of you wanting to fight back against Atlas and making this world better again"

"And what makes you think I'm willing to risk the safety and lives of my team?"

"Well, you wouldn't have come here with us in the first place. Obviously, some part of you wants to join us. Do correct me if I'm wrong though"

Heejin is silent, but Hyunjin understands. Atlas aren't the best people ever, and she can't imagine what they tried to do to Heejin and her friends. But the threat of Heejin being a spy or a double agent is still out there, the vote to take them in was only won by two. Hyunjin felt like she could trust Heejin, but she had to gain the trust of everyone else before she was going to be considered a true Sentinel.

"Can I talk to my people about it?"

Hyunjin smiles at her success, "Of course"

-

They take the deal and Hyunjin is praised for it. The three girls meet the rest of Heejin's team, finding out that Yeojin was only 13 when the war started. They fled to Atlas since it was the only thing they knew about until they learned the necessary skills to leave. Vivi, Hyejoo, and Heejin were ex-military which explained why they knew so much about surviving.

"Sentinel is a storage unit facility?" Heejin asks and pulls Hyunjin's attention.

"Sentinel has different branches and squads, this here is EDEN", Hyunjin smiles at the name.

"EDEN? As in, like, the bible story?"

"Yeah, it’s less about the religion and more about the story I guess. I wasn’t around when they made the name, honestly, I couldn’t give a fuck what we're called"

"That's…weird”

"Yeah, but it’s part of our charm" Hyunjin smiles again and looks at Heejin in the passenger seat.

Her eyes are trained ahead at the opening gate, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"You'll fit right in, don't worry"

"It's not fitting in I'm worried about", Heejin mumbles.

Hyunjin is about to ask what Heejin means but a guard waves for the Jeep to pull into the gate. Hyunjin weaves around the many blocks of storage units until she's at the center block where Sooyoung and Jinsol are already waiting for them at the entrance.

-

Heejin is skeptical about the storage unit kind of facility, it doesn't seem very stable or protective but obviously, Sentinel knows what it's doing.

She's skeptical about the whole thing really. It's probably just her mistrust of people that keeps clouding her judgment. She feels like she can trust Hyunjin for some reason, but she's only one person amongst the entire Sentinel company. They may have heard nothing bad about Sentinel but that’s how they ended up in Atlas, and at Atlas…Well, Heejin would rather not get into that at the moment.

Besides, even if she is only one person, she's not bad eye candy to Heejin.

"Welcome to EDEN! Hyunjin will be showing you around since we already took your team on a tour. If you get done in enough time and Hyunjin doesn't talk as much as she can, you can meet us at the cafeteria for dinner", Sooyoung says as soon as Heejin steps out of the jeep.

She's standing at the top of a ramp where a set of doors stand. Hyunjin takes Heejin through them and, yeah, Heejin is blown away.

The entrance is small but once she looks down the halls it seems like the building is endless. The doors from the storage units are still there but every single one is painted differently, the ceilings are high, and the halls are wide, the floor is polished wood, and the lights are actually very bright. A large elevator stands in front of the entrance door, but Heejin can still see a set of metal stairs going up to the next level.

"So, this block is EDEN’s special task force block, most of the military personnel live here. The first two floors are mostly communications, armory, infirmary, labs, control rooms, data rooms, I could go on and on but that probably sounds boring, so I'll just take you to the third and fourth floors", Heejin listens to Hyunjin carefully, noticing her light and breathy tone as she walks up to the elevator, "We have a bunch of different rooms for you to choose from since we don't have many people on the fourth floor"

"How come?" Heejin asks as they step into the elevator.

"Most of them live on the third floor or in other blocks with their families. Sentinel has a fairly large military program, but Atlas is fighting against us pretty hard and there's only so much the training program can prepare us for"

"I can tell you some things about Atlas if it'll help"

"That'd be great", Heejin doesn't think she's ever seen a smile so nice on anyone before, especially during the war. Hyunjin is looking at her intensely, her eyes flickering down once and Heejin realizes how close she is to the other girl. She can feel her heartbeat pick up a little, but it's short lived as the elevator stops.

-

Hyunjin definitely felt something in the elevator with Heejin. Even as she's walking down the halls with her, she can feel it. She decides to ignore it, however, in favor of getting Heejin and her team settled and comfortable at EDEN.

"So, these are some of the bigger units we have, you can take whichever one you want and paint it like you saw on the other ones"

"Which ones did my team take?"

"Vivi took 5, Yeojin took 4, and Hyejoo took 12. They all kind of lit up when they found out those numbers were open", Hyunjin was extremely confused by it too.

"Yeah, those are our lucky numbers", Heejin laughs, sending butterflies through Hyunjin's stomach.

"I should've known, we do that too. What was your number?"

"One", Hyunjin can see Heejin smile a little.

"Oh, lucky you, we've got that one open too"

Heejin seems to cheer up as the numbers on the doors get closer to the single digits.

Soon the girls find themselves in front of a large door with the number one on it. Hyunjin presses on the panels next to the door and a screen illuminates in front of her.

"You can put a code on the door if you'd like, all of your stuff is locked in the armory so I can take you there if you want but you're welcome to wander around and find it yourself", Hyunjin says as she slowly backs away from the door.

"Yeah thanks, I'll just find my people and get the stuff myself"

"No problem, I'll see you later", as quickly as she can Hyunjin turns and starts walking down the hall to her unit, but she stops and turns around to look at Heejin, "Hey, Heejin?"

"Yeah?" The shorter girl turns to look at Hyunjin with a smile that sends butterflies through her stomach.

"I'm glad you decided to join us", Hyunjin says sincerely.

Heejin doesn't reply for a moment but she smiles even wider, "Me too"

Satisfied, Hyunjin nods and leaves.

-

Heejin sighs as she places the last box of her stuff onto the floor of her new room. It was a good-sized room with a mirror, two dressers, a full-sized bed, and a tall safe in the corner. Unlike regular storage units, these didn't have mesh tops and the wall went all the way up to the ceiling. Yeojin and Heejin had even checked the sound through the walls, nothing could be heard no matter how loud they yelled. Heejin and her team spent a good three hours carrying their stuff back and forth to their units but had no luck in finding their weapons and technology. Heejin was going to have to ask Hyunjin about that later.

"So", Yeojin's voice sounded from behind Heejin, causing her to jump slightly.

"Jesus Yeojin, you scared me", the younger girl just laughs, "What do you want?"

"Hyunjin huh?" Her eyebrows wiggle up and down at Heejin.

" _What_?"

"Oh, don't you _what_ me. You stopped shooting at them the second she popped her head out of cover. And wasn't she the one that convinced you to listen to their offer? You never listen to people besides us, and I totally saw the way you looked at her before she left"

"I thought you were with Sooyoung?" Heejin practically yells.

"They assigned me to security for now, saw you two on the cameras", Yeojin smirks and walks out of her unit, leaving Heejin stunned.

“They already have you assigned to something?”

Yeojin beams as she pops her head back around the corner, “Yep, they said I passed the test with flying colors and they have to discuss where they want me, so they just stuck me in a security room and said have fun!”

Heejin squints, “No they didn’t”

“No, no they didn’t”, Yeojin sighs, “I did pass the test though!”

Heejin hums, returning to her previous activity when Yeojin runs off somewhere. Which leaves her to think about what Yeojin said.

She _totally_ wasn't looking at Hyunjin a certain way, and she _totally_ listens to other people. She was just hardheaded and skeptical about Sentinel, but now they had shelter and a probably endless amount of food without the threat of Atlas. Hopefully.

Truth is, they were very close to getting caught by them again. They stumbled upon the base in San Francisco by accident, they needed to find somewhere secluded to stay while the Atlas party passed by. Heejin was kind of glad Sentinel found them now, besides being shot at a few times they had been nothing but nice and understanding. Unlike Atlas who practically forced them to stay at their company. But it could all be an act, and that's what scared Heejin the most.

She shook the uneasy feeling off as she walked down the hall to the right to try and find Hyunjin. She didn't even realize she was walking the wrong way when Sooyoung came stumbling out of unit nine on the corner.

"Oh, hey Heejin", Heejin could tell that Sooyoung’s smile was strained, they hadn't exactly been friendly to each other since their argument.

"Hey, I'm kind of lost, can you show me where Hyunjin is?"

"Sure", Sooyoung practically runs down the hall where Heejin came from, probably trying to avoid a conversation.

But Heejin was determined to make things not so awkward between the two, "Wait, Sooyoung! Slow down!"

"Sorry, you kind of caught me at a bad time"

"Well, you could have just told me that"

"Then I would have seemed like I was brushing you off"

Sooyoung took a sharp right, almost leaving Heejin behind.

"Sooyoung, just wait", when Heejin turned the corner Sooyoung was standing there with her arms crossed, "Listen, I know I was kind of rude during the interview and I just wanted to apologize. We have to work together now, and I don't want things to be tense alright?"

Sooyoung is quiet for a second but she puts her hand out to Heejin, "Sorry I've been avoiding you, I kind of just thought you didn't like me at all"

"Don't apologize, you were just standing up for your company", Heejin shakes Sooyoung’s hand and smiles.

"Apology accepted then. Just don't hurt Hyunjin okay?" And with that, she walks past Heejin and back around the corner.

Heejin is confused once again, but also a little embarrassed that two people have now noticed her small… _infatuation…_ with Hyunjin.

"Heejin?"

_'Speak of the devil'_ , Heejin thinks as she turns around to see Hyunjin leaning against the wall.

"Hey, I was looking for you"

"You look like a lost puppy", Hyunjin laughs but motions for Heejin to follow her.

Hesitantly, Heejin follows her into the unit, which has the number two fading on the wall next to it.

Hyunjin is seated in a rolling chair next to a wooden desk with a computer and a stereo. The full-sized bed is pushed into the right corner, next to that is a small table and a large wardrobe. The floor is soft carpet, a couple of framed pictures and posters are placed around the walls, including a large guitar above the desk. A chest stands at the foot of the bed with stickers placed all over it. Heejin also notices the yellow piano standing in the opposite corner.

When Heejin looks back at Hyunjin she has an eyebrow raised, "Sorry, what?"

"I asked what you needed", she says with a breathy laugh, Heejin could listen to that laugh all day.

"Oh, right. I just wanted to know where all of our weapons and stuff were. They weren't with the rest of our stuff so", Heejin drawls out.

"Oh, shit, yeah, I totally forgot about that. Haseul usually makes us lock the larger stuff up in the armory so we can just grab it with our Exo suits, but I kept a couple of your pistols and knives", Hyunjin gets up out of the chair and walks over to the wardrobe. She shifts a few things around before she carries out a metal box.

"And you were planning on keeping these until I came to ask for them?" Heejin asks jokingly as she takes the box.

Hyunjin just grins and scratches the back of her neck, "Sorry, I totally forgot about it trying to get you guys settled in"

"Well thanks for keeping them anyways"

"Yeah, no problem", both of the girls stand there silently for a moment.

They look at each other intensely, Heejin unconsciously pulling at her bottom lip as she stares into Hyunjin's brown eyes. Neither of them notices Sooyoung and Jinsol standing behind them until they clear their throats, causing Heejin to almost drop the box.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Haseul wants everyone in the briefing room", Jinsol says and drags Sooyoung with her down the hall.

"That's never good, come on we should hurry", Hyunjin grabs her combat boots and pulls Heejin out of the unit with her.

“Wait, why is that never good?”

Hyunjin glances behind her, “It means we’ve got a mission on our hands, Jeon Heejin”


	3. III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a general warning for this chapter: Panic attack, mentions of blood, and the after-effects of a panic attack that may be triggering.

-

"It's been a long day for everyone, especially for our new members but we've had a bit of an emergency situation thrown at us. Jiwoo and Jungeun went out on a supply run this morning and we haven't heard anything back from them. Sadly, we've had reports of Atlas in the area, so that means they're getting bolder with taking and killing our people. We need a team to go out and find them to make sure they're okay. You can make this a recon mission, or you can make it a forward attack mission. I know Jiwoo and Jungeun are important to all of us so I would appreciate it if we got this done as soon as possible", Haseul explains to everyone in the room.

"I'll go", Hyunjin stands as soon as Haseul finishes.

"Us too", Jinsol and Sooyoung also stand.

"I'm in", another girl stands up, Chaewon, Heejin thinks.

The room is silent for a moment, giving Heejin a second to look around the room. There are about 20 women in the room, not including Heejin and her team. Everyone seems to be in their own little world, or very pale looking.

"Count me in", Heejin stands up and the room somehow gets even quieter.

She's sitting at the back of the room, so everyone shifts in their seat to look at her. Heejin feels Hyejoo and Vivi stand up also, but she shakes her head as Yeojin starts to stand up. She knows Yeojin is too young for this, and now that they work for Sentinel, the missions they go on will get serious. It's not that she wants to restrict the teenager, she just doesn't want to watch her little sister get killed.

"Are you sure?" Haseul asks the group.

"We may have only been here for a day or so but now that we are, we're committed to the company and the missions. Jiwoo and Jungeun obviously have a large significance here and going on this mission with you will give us a chance to prove our worth to you", Vivi speaks for the three girls.

"We want you to trust us, and we want to trust you. This is a perfect opportunity", Hyejoo says also.

"What about Yeojin?"

Heejin tenses, "She's only seventeen. If anything happened to her, I would feel responsible and I would never forgive myself. She's like my little sister, I don't want her getting hurt now that these missions are serious"

"It's cool, I don't mind staying back at all", Yeojin finally speaks up.

Haseul seems satisfied so she turns back to everyone else, "Hyunjin will be commanding this mission. I trust you will listen to her and take everything she has to say to heart. Good luck, please don't die, and get our girls back"

-

Hyunjin marches out of the briefing room with the team behind her as they make their way to the armory. She switches her brain to her military mode, not allowing herself to think about her current distractions _coughHeejincough_ , who just so happens to be going on this mission too.

Jinsol and Sooyoung follow swiftly behind her. Having done this hundreds of times, the three of them, along with Chaewon, are suited up and loaded in record time. Heejin and Hyejoo have trouble with their suits, which Hyunjin is really going to have to talk to them about, but Vivi gets the hang of it and is finished next.

"This button shifts your helmet so it becomes full headed, your earpiece is right here, and your Exo Ability is triggered by this button right here", Hyunjin listens to Sooyoung as she pulls the helmet over Heejin's head.

She notices Heejin trembling under her hand, "Are you nervous?"

"Yeah", even though Hyunjin can only see her eyes, Heejin seems embarrassed.

"You'll be fine, just stay by my side"

Heejin nods but Hyunjin can still sense the fear coming from her.

"We're ready Hyunjin", Chaewon whispers.

"Alright, let's get this show on the road. Jinsol you're flying, Sooyoung and Chaewon will take the guns"

"You got it", Jinsol nods.

"What about us?" Heejin motions to Vivi and Hyejoo.

"I'll be briefing you on what we're going to do. This mission is extremely important, and it has to be perfect"

"Understood", Vivi says as she pulls the door open for everyone, "Let's go get your people back then"

-

"Jiwoo and Jungeun are smart, so they're either hiding somewhere in the building or in the area. If they're not hiding, they're still fighting or dead", Hyunjin can see Sooyoung's grip tighten on her gun.

"So how do we approach the situation?" Vivi asks.

"Atlas is looking closely at the area, so we have to be careful. The facility is huge, three stories of nothing but supplies. It’s surrounded by a huge fence, left by the industry that was there before. We've been going to this facility for months and nothing like this has happened before", Hyunjin pulls a datapad from her bag and taps the screen until a hologram comes up, "What we're thinking of doing is landing on top of the building if we can. If we can't, we land just outside of the fence, cut a hole in it, and get inside. We're gonna split up and go through the back, get down to all the floors and look for any signs of them. If we don't find any, we'll scout around the area and see if their suits are giving off any signals.”

"How are we splitting up?" Sooyoung asks as she picks at her suit.

"Two teams of two, and one team of three. We can split up however you want, just as long as we find them and get out alive"

"Chaewon is experienced, so could she just go with us and Jinsol, or Sooyoung go with Heejin?" Vivi asks.

"You’re crazy if you think Sooyoung is gonna leave Jinsol’s side", Chaewon laughs.

_"She's right",_ Jinsol's voice cracks through everyone’s earpiece.

"Alright how about this, Chaewon you go with Heejin and Hyejoo, Sooyoung and Jinsol will go together, and I'll go with Vivi", Hyunjin suggests.

"Let me go with you", Heejin says quickly before anyone can agree.

Hyunjin looks at Heejin with a raised eyebrow, but nods her head anyways, "You and I will take the third floor, Jinsol and Sooyoung will take the second and you guys can take the first floor"

_"What are we looking for?"_ Jinsol asks.

"Any signs that they've been there. Anything left behind from them would be useful too"

"And if we don't find them?"

"We will", Hyunjin snaps, "We have to"

-

Heejin doesn't know why she rushed to be with Hyunjin, she just thought being away from her wouldn't be good. Thinking about it almost made her anxious, it made her feel sick to the stomach.

"Just follow my lead and you'll be okay. This may be your first serious mission, but I have faith in you, we're gonna get out okay", Hyunjin had moved closer to Heejin after going over the plan so they could talk.

Heejin smirks and looks down at her lap, "Pinky promise?"

She looks at Hyunjin, the smile on her lips gives her butterflies, "Pinky promise"

Hyunjin holds up her pinky to Heejin, which she takes in her own and smiles even larger.

"Alright love birds, chill out, we're almost there", Chaewon’s voice causes Hyunjin and Heejin to jump apart.

They both blush, moving to other sides of the heli and looking out. Being on the ground all the time didn't let Heejin see what had really happened to the world. She watches the land fly by, slowly turning from lush woods to bare land. There were hundreds of craters in the ground, all filled with ash and rubble. It sends an uneasy feeling through Heejin, she had no idea it had gotten this bad over the past few years. She wished this had never happened to the world, things would be fine if people would just get along, but here she is, flying in an army helicopter getting ready to go into a possible war zone.

Heejin was terrified to say the least, she didn't really do anything in the army before the war started, and she just went through hundreds of tests and trials with Atlas that she didn't even know the reason for. And she still kind of missed Hansol. It's been a year since he was shot, but it still hurt to think about it. But Hyunjin seemed to make things better for her. She had a certain personality that brightened a room when she walked in. It also made Heejin a little nervous. Yeah, they were fighting a war and she was practically married to Hansol before he died but Hyunjin felt like safety to Heejin.

_"We're coming up to the building, the roof is clear, so we won't have to go through the fence",_ Jinsol's voice pulls Heejin from her thoughts, and she sees the terrain go back to woods.

"Alright, stick to the plan unless something goes wrong. Keep your radio channel open at all times, we'll look inside the building for half an hour and meet up on the roof if we don't find anything, understood?"

Many forms of confirmation make their way to Hyunjin, and Heejin has to keep herself from smiling. But her slight happiness is short-lived as she feels the helicopter land on the building, the doors opening seconds later.

"Let's go get our girls", Sooyoung yells.

-

The girls made their way to their respective levels, deciding to enter through the back stairways at the same time. Hyunjin and Heejin swiftly run down the stairs from the roof to the third level. Jinsol and Sooyoung run past them down the stairs, followed closely by Hyejoo, Vivi, and Monday.

"Radio if you guys need anything!" Hyunjin yells down the stairwell, receiving echoes back from her teammates.

Hyunjin looks at Heejin, smiling softly when the brown-eyed soldier looks back at her, "Are you ready?"

Heejin lets out a sigh and nods, pulling the pistol from her side and taking the left side of the doors. The stairwell is mostly stone, it seems to have worn down more since the last time Hyunjin was here, but she doesn't want to think about that.

"Alright, you all have the go ahead to proceed, remember to meet back at the heli in thirty minutes", Hyunjin says into her radio, nodding at Heejin and pushing the large metal doors open. It takes her a moment to adjust to the dark room, but when she does her jaw drops.

"Holy shit"

"Holy shit too"

"What the hell happened here?"

Hyunjin's eyes graze over the completely trashed room, she listens to her team on the radio who must be seeing similar things. She pulls her helmet off of her head, the smell of fire and fired rounds filling her nose. She can see holes from bullets in the walls and torn boxes, but what catches her eye is the black substance sticking to the high ceilings.

"What the hell is that?" Heejin says as she looks up also.

"I have no idea", Hyunjin whispers.

She starts walking towards the rows of shelves in the middle of the room, but a hand on her chest stops her.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Heejin asks with her hand still on Hyunjin.

"It's the only way to know if Jiwoo and Jungeun are still alive"

_"From the looks of it I don't think they are",_ Jinsol's voice startles Hyunjin.

"Shut it, Jung, you're assuming", Hyunjin snarls into her headset, quickly walking past Heejin.

She hears Heejin sigh behind her, but the sound of footsteps follows Hyunjin. She walks down the wide hall into the open room, carefully raking her eyes over the shelves of destroyed supplies. She's never seen the building this trashed before, let alone so damaged in places she didn't think could be damaged. The beams in the ceilings look dangerously loose, some even hanging all the way off from other beams and others have fallen on top of the shelves. There's bullet backfire all over the walls, bullets and bullet holes are haphazardly placed in the thin walls at the front of the room and in the supplies. The black substance on the ceiling seems to be dripping down, forming puddles in the middle of the aisles.

Hyunjin and Heejin make their way around the room, managing to scavenge a few supplies but it's not much. It's not until they're at the front of the room that they find something useful. But Hyunjin has to look away when they round the corner.

There's an open space at the front of the building, blown away by what looks like shrapnel grenades. At the center of the room there's a flag, covered and dripping in blood, but Hyunjin can still see the emblem under the thick fluid.

"Atlas", Heejin manages to gasp out.

-

Heejin couldn't do anything but gape at the flag, she knew it meant something bad, but she didn't know how bad. The amount of blood dripping from the flag was too much for someone to have survived, it made her stomach churn just thinking about it.

"Hyunjin", Heejin whispers as she swallows past the lump in her throat, "Hyunjin what does this mean?"

She hears Hyunjin gasp for air, still unable to take her eyes off the flag, "It means Jiwoo and Jungeun are dead"

Heejin can feel her stomach drop, she was hoping this situation wasn't going to come to this. God, she hoped it wasn't going to come to this. She finally looks away from the flag, turning towards Hyunjin but her heart just breaks more. Hyunjin is kneeling on the floor, her fists curled up. She's slightly rocking back and forth, and Heejin swears she can hear her whimpering.

"Hyunjin", Heejin whispers but her captain stays silent, "Hyunjin come on we have to go find them"

"No, no, they're gone. There's no finding them now", Hyunjin whimpers.

"You don't know that, come on we have to go find them", Heejin tries to lift Hyunjin up, but she pushes her onto the floor and stands up.

"Do you not understand me, Heejin? They're gone, they're dead, there's no getting them back! Atlas killed them and smeared their fucking blood all over their flag as revenge! They're dead, there's no going out to find them or getting them back! God, they're probably being thrown out into the middle of nowhere as we speak!"

Heejin is stunned, she didn’t expect to see Hyunjin get this emotional, and the calm exterior she presented on the outside hid this side of her very well. She stays on the ground where she fell, gaping at the crying soldier in front of her.

"Hyunjin you don't know if they're dead or not, you haven't seen their bodies or-", Heejin stands and tries to reason with Hyunjin but is cut off.

"Is this not enough proof to you?" Hyunjin screams as she grabs the flag from where it stands, getting blood all over her hands and her suit, "Is their blood not proof enough? Nobody survives from bleeding this much Heejin!"

Heejin watches in horror as Hyunjin flails around, blood finds its way onto her face and her hair. She continues ranting, and Heejin doesn't know what to do besides watch. She can tell Hyunjin is slowly losing her grasp on reality, so she rushes to get up and get the soldiers' attention.

"Hyunjin! Hyunjin listen to me it's gonna be okay!" Heejin doesn't care that she's getting blood all over her.

"No! No, it's not gonna be okay, my best friend is dead!"

"You don't know that Hyunjin! You haven't seen their bodies, you don't even know if this is their blood!"

Hyunjin's sobs stop at Heejin's words, staring at the brown-eyed soldier with tears still in her eyes. Heejin frowns at the sight in front of her, there's blood smeared all over Hyunjin's face and arms, tears still threatening to break out of her eyes. Heejin smiles softly, softly catching a stray tear falling with her thumb.

"It's gonna be okay", Heejin pulls Hyunjin towards her, snaking her arms around her shoulders. Hyunjin sobs into Heejin's chest, holding tightly onto her waist as she probably wouldn't be able to stand on her own. She doesn't even care that she's breaking down in front of Heejin, she doesn't really care about anything right now. She just wished she had said goodbye to Jiwoo like she usually did. Being in the military meant taking risks but Jiwoo was Hyunjin's best friend besides Sooyoung, and she wasn't ready to say goodbye to her.

"They're dead", Hyunjin whispers to herself mostly, but Heejin still hears her and pulls her closer, if that's even possible.

"No, they're not. We just found them passed out on the first floor in a closet. They're injured pretty bad, Jiwoo has a huge cut on her side but she's alive", Chaewon’s voice startles the two soldiers, but Hyunjin still clings on Heejin's arms.

Hyunjin perks up and tightens her grip on Heejin's arms, "And Jungeun?"

"There's a gash on her forehead, she's probably gonna need stitches. We're gonna get them to the heli while you guys keep looking around"

"Alright, let us know if either of them wakes up or anything"

"Will do Cap", Chaewon gives Hyunjin a sympathetic smile before turning and walking out of the room.

Heejin finally lets herself breathe, but she's still cautious of how Hyunjin will react. Suddenly, she starts laughing hysterically and Heejin is more than confused.

"I almost lost another best friend", Hyunjin manages to say as she laughs, letting her head fall onto Heejin's shoulder again.

-

"Woah, what the hell happened to you two?" Sooyoung asks when she sees Heejin and Hyunjin covered in blood. She walks over to Hyunjin and notices something different, her eyes blowing wide when she notices the distant look in her. She's leaning all the way on Heejin, her feet dragging behind her, she doesn't even notice Sooyoung standing in front of her. Sooyoung remembers the last time this happened, and it wasn't good at all.

"What happened?" She whispers to Heejin.

"I don't know", is all Heejin says before carrying Hyunjin to the helicopter.

Sooyoung watches helplessly, not noticing Jinsol come up next to her as they both watch Heejin strap Hyunjin in.

"You know this isn't good right?" Jinsol asks Sooyoung.

"Yeah, last time she had that look-"

"Yerim, I know"

The two share one last look of understanding before making their way onto the helicopter.

-

The ride back is silent, Vivi and Hyejoo had a moment of panic when they saw Heejin covered in blood but Heejin just shook them off. She was more worried about Hyunjin, who hadn't said a word yet. Jiwoo and Jungeun were laid out on the floor across from Sooyoung and Chaewon, occasionally mumbling or stirring around. Heejin could tell that Sooyoung and Jinsol knew something about Hyunjin and they weren't telling her, but she wasn't going to ask them about it now, not when Hyunjin clearly needed someone to lean on.

-

When they finally reached EDEN, they were bombarded with questions, but everyone eventually backed off since Jiwoo and Jungeun needed some serious treatment. Heejin was just extremely tired, and she needed to get Hyunjin into some different clothes before anyone started asking more questions. Hyunjin was still being unresponsive to everything, so Heejin was going to have to carry all the way to her unit. Not that Heejin minded, she just wished Hyunjin would say something, so she knew that she was okay.

"I can take care of Hyunjin", Sooyoung says as she opens the door to the building.

Heejin smiles as much as she can, "It's okay, I got her"

Sooyoung just nods her head and heads inside with Jinsol. Heejin looks down at Hyunjin and frowns, she was curled against Heejin with her arms wrapped around her neck, still not saying or doing anything. Heejin sighs heavily and makes her way to the elevator, nodding to Vivi and Hyejoo as they pass by. The door closes and starts lifting, Heejin unconsciously starts humming and stroking her fingers along Hyunjin's arm.

The elevator finally stops on the fourth floor and Heejin slowly makes her way to Hyunjin's unit. She internally cheers when she sees the door doesn't have a code on it and sets Hyunjin down in her office chair. Heejin quickly shuffles around the dresser to find some clothes for Hyunjin to change into, pulling out a soccer jersey and sweatpants. She throws them over her shoulder and picks Hyunjin back up, she feels her arms around her neck again and smiles, walking out of the unit and heading to the showers. She walks down the hall in silence, slowly starting to feel the fatigue of carrying Hyunjin around. She slips into the showers, pulling a stool from the lockers and placing it in front of one of the curtains. She sets Hyunjin down on the stool and hangs the clothes over the railing.

"Hyunjin?" Heejin tries to get Hyunjin to look at her but fails.

"Hyunjin, come on you gotta wash off really quick and then we can get you to bed", Hyunjin actually blinks as Heejin speaks. She waits a second for Hyunjin to process what she's saying, smiling when Hyunjin nods slightly.

"Do you want me to help you?" Hyunjin nods her head no, "Alright, I'm gonna go to my unit and get some stuff so I can wash off too. I'll be right back, I promise"

Hyunjin nods her head again and stands up, throwing Heejin a little off guard, but still isn't looking at Heejin. She disappears behind the curtain and Heejin hears the water turn on, so she smiles and walks back to her unit.

-

"Heejin!" Sooyoung's voice catches Heejin's attention as she's walking into her unit.

"Hey Sooyoung", she smiles.

"Hey, can I talk to you really quick?"

"Yeah sure, what's up?" Heejin says as she shuffles through her clothes.

"Look it's not really my place to tell you what happened, but Hyunjin lost someone really important to her last year and this is how she acted back then. It took a lot of therapy and time to get back to normal, and I'm really worried about her now"

"So, what should I do?" Heejin asks.

"That's the thing. When, uh, let's call her Y, when Y died, she went into shock and started flipping out and screaming all the time. It took us an hour to get her to calm down, whereas you took what? Five minutes? Every time she started freaking out it took all of our power to get her to calm down, but you touch her once and she's fine", Sooyoung explains.

Heejin scoffs, "Are you saying I have some kind of superpower?"

"She's saying what everyone has been thinking since you and your group got here. You're special to Hyunjin, even if you've only been here for two days. Extremely so, and this might be easier for her with you here. Just be careful with her, she's got a lot of triggers that I can tell you about, but right now you both just need to get some sleep", Jinsol comes out of nowhere, startling Heejin slightly.

"Right, well I should get back to her. I left her standing in the shower and if she falls I'm gonna be really-"

"GET OFF OF ME"

Heejin stops in her tracks, feeling Jinsol and Sooyoung tense behind her too. She knows that was Hyunjin's scream, but why the hell would she be screaming? She hears Hyunjin scream again, but it turns into loud sobbing and Heejin's body flips into action mode and she sprints down the hall. She bursts into the showers, closely followed by Jinsol and Sooyoung. Hyunjin is still sobbing loudly, and Heejin's heart starts racing.

"Hyunjin, what's wrong?" Heejin pulls back the curtain and her heart crumbles to the ground.

She’s sitting in the corner of the shower, frantically rubbing at the blood-stained on her skin. Heejin instantly drops to her knees and grabs Hyunjin's hands, whispering softly to her. It takes a second, but Hyunjin eventually stops crying. She turns around to see Sooyoung and Jinsol staring at her with wide eyes.

"See what I mean?" Sooyoung whispers.

Heejin just nods and turns her attention back to Hyunjin, who now has her head on her knees.

"It's alright guys, I got it"

"Are you sure?" Jinsol asks.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna clean her up and get her in bed"

"Alright, let us know if you need anything, sleep well", the couple say as they walk out of the showers.

-

"Hyunjin, can you stand up for me?"

Heejin barely notices, but Hyunjin nods and slowly gets off the ground. Hyunjin watches Heejin pull the stool into the shower for her and she sits down on it as Heejin realizes she's still in her clothes. Hyunjin watches Heejin peel the wet clothes off of her body, throwing them outside the curtain. Hyunjin's eyes trail over Heejin's toned legs and abs, slowly taking her in until she looks up at her face. Heejin smiles down at her, pulling her hair out of her ponytail and letting it drape around her shoulders. Hyunjin doesn't think Heejin could get any more beautiful than she is right now, she wishes she could just stand up and kiss her, but her body is tired, and she doesn't want to do anything but cry.

"Alright, let's get you cleaned up", Heejin says as she grabs soap and shampoo. Hyunjin lets herself relax as Heejin's hands trail over her body and through her hair, but she doesn't dare open her eyes to see the blood running down her body. It feels like forever, but eventually, Heejin is done. She steps in front of Hyunjin and kneels down until she's eye level with her.

"Close your eyes for me", Hyunjin obeys and closes her eyes. She hears Heejin fumble around with the soap and soon feels Heejin's fingers gently gliding over her face.

She knows she's getting the blood off of her face, but it feels so much more intimate. Heejin's hands trail over her cheeks and jawline, then down to her neck and collar bones. Hyunjin opens her eyes when the soap washes away and watches Heejin. When she's done, she lets out a sigh of triumph and smiles at Hyunjin. Hyunjin tries to smile back but can't find the energy to so she just stares at Heejin. She sees Heejin's face fall, but she turns around too soon to see any more expression. Hyunjin looks down at her hands while Heejin washes herself, and soon Heejin is drying both of them off and handing Hyunjin clothes to change in to. She looks at Heejin and then back at the clothes in her hand. Heejin sighs, obviously understanding and motioning for Hyunjin to lift her arms.

Hyunjin suddenly feels conscious about her body and frowns, which Heejin notices, "Come on, I just washed your entire naked body off and now you're feeling shy?"

Hyunjin internally smiles at Heejin, slowly lifting her arms.

"Alright, let's get you to bed", Heejin says when she finally gets her clothes on. Hyunjin seems eager for Heejin to carry her, and Heejin is just glad she's showing a little emotion.

She carries Hyunjin out of the showers and down the hall to her unit, taking the long way so she can check up on Sooyoung and Jinsol. When she passes by Jinsol's unit she sees them both in bed asleep and she smiles, closing Jinsol's door with her foot and continuing down the hall to Hyunjin's unit. When she gets there, she carefully lays Hyunjin down and lifts the blanket over her.

"If you need anything just come get me okay?" Heejin says, turning to head out but a hand on her wrist stops her. She turns back to Hyunjin who is looking up at her.

"Stay with me", Heejin's heart breaks as Hyunjin croaks the words out.

But she smiles lightly and nods, quickly closing the door and laying down next to Hyunjin. She tries to give Hyunjin some space, but she feels an arm wrap around her waist the moment her body hits the mattress. Heejin shifts her arm so that Hyunjin can use it as a pillow and Hyunjin does so.

Heejin lays there in silence, feeling Hyunjin's breathing even out, "Goodnight Hyunjin"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twt: @kimlippington
> 
> ig: @kimberlylippington


	4. IIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay TW for this chapter: nightmares, graphic death, panic attacks, essentially the aftermath of a traumatic experience 
> 
> sorry its late lol, school caught up to me for a second but we're cool now!

-

_It feels like she's been running forever, her lungs are burning, and she can hear the blood pumping through her ears. She doesn't know how much longer she can take it, but she has to get out before the building collapses. She keeps running, taking sharp turns until she finally reaches a door with an exit sign above it. She pushes the door open and stumbles out, but there's nothing but bright white light past the door. She tries to catch herself with the door frame, but it's too late and she ends up falling into the endless white. She tries to scream but she can't, her lungs are too tired from running._

_She falls for what seems like forever, until the white around her twists and changes into a barren desert. She can feel the sun beating down on her, almost instantly feeling beads of sweat drip down her neck and forehead. She spins around, searching the flat land for anything, or anyone._

_"Hello?" Her dry voice calls out, but there's no answer._

_She starts walking in the direction of the sun, which seems to be West since it looks like it's setting. She knows she won't be able to handle running, not with her lungs still burning and the sun beating down on her._

_After a while of pointless walking, she just gives up and sits down on the hard dirt. She knows it's just a dream but what is it supposed to mean? Why out of all places does she end up in a desert? The last time she was in one was when-_

No.

_She wasn't going to think about that. Not here, not ever again._

_"What are you doing here?" A voice startles her, but she doesn't dare turn around. She knows that voice, she knows she won't be able to handle it if she looks at that face._

_"I could ask you the same thing", she decides to say back._

_The voice laughs the laugh she misses so much, "It's not your time yet, lord knows you're too lazy to die right now"_

_I don't understand. Right now is the worst time to be seeing you"_

_She hears a sigh beside her and the crunching of dirt, "Yeah, I saw what happened earlier"_

_"So, you know you shouldn't be here", she lashes out and looks in the opposite direction when she hears the figure sit down next to her._

_"Hey, don't be like that. It took a lot of convincing to come down and visit you"_

_"Maybe I don't want to see you", she says through the tightening in her throat._

_It's silent, she's scared that the figure has disappeared beside her, but she knows it hasn't. She just wants to get out of here, get out of this dream or whatever this was. She doesn't want to see_ her _, or hear_ her _. She can't deal with it right now._

_"I guess I'll be on my way then", she hears the figure stand up, and it takes all she has not to look up. She lets a couple of moments pass by, listening to the crunching of dirt until she can't handle it anymore._

_Tears spill out of her eyes as she scrambles off the ground towards the figure, "Wait!"_

_She feels like she's made a grave mistake looking at that face, but she doesn't care once she comes into view. Her long brown hair rests on her shoulders, brown eyes vibrant against the plain desert background and her perfect, white teeth are smiling._

_"Hey"_

_"I miss you", is all she says as she falls into the arms of her ex-best friend._

_Hands trail over her back smoothly, "I know. I miss you too"_

_She feels everything inside of her fall apart. She was hoping this wasn't going to happen like the first time, that whatever was out there would be kind to her and keep her out of this torture. And it really was torture, seeing the vibrant face of her dead best friend, having it feel so real. She misses her so much, and she still blames herself for everything that happened. She wished she had never gotten on that stupid plane, that she had never pulled that lever or given the pilot that gun to protect himself._

_"I'm so sorry, so so sorry", she sobs into her best friend’s shoulder._

_"Hey, it's okay. Quit blaming yourself", her best friend pulls back and looks her in the eye, "You could have never known her was going to do that. None of this is your fault, it was just bad luck"_

_"But it shouldn't have happened to you! You out of all people, the one I needed most! I still can't get the image of you bleeding and dying in my arms out of my head at night. You haunt me! My best friend in the entire world haunts me!"_

_"Hey, hey, come on", she wipes the tears running down her cheeks, "You have to let go. It's been a year. You got your revenge, he's dead now and you have to accept that I'm gone. I know you won't see me for a long time after this, but try to let go okay? Heejin will take care of you, you can take care of you. You're strong and I believe in you, you just have to let go"_

_"No", she shakes her head frantically and tightens her grip, "No I can't let you go, I won't let you go"_

_"You have to"_

_"No!"_

_A gunshot rings through the air, she watches the smile fade from her best friends’ eyes, watches the life drain from her eyes._

_"I love you, stay strong for me", she whispers before dropping to the ground._

_"No! Please no don't leave me!" She drops to the ground with her best friend, scrambling around her body to find the wound and to stop the bleeding. She's getting blood everywhere, she doesn't even know where the blood is coming from but there's so much and she just wants it to stop._

_"Let go", she whispers before she goes still._

_"No, please don't do this", she screams._

_The life is gone from her eyes, she can't feel a heartbeat anymore and the air is silent. Her sobs cease for a moment as she stares at the lifeless body of her best friend._

_She screams out into the silent air, grabbing her shoulders and laying her head on her chest. Her screams fill the air, her sobs threatening to break through them._

_"Yerim!", she screams one last time before everything goes dark._

-

"Hyunjin!" Is the first thing she hears when she wakes up.

The lack of oxygen hits her lungs, and she sits up, gasping for air in the pitch dark. Her hands flail around, trying to find the voice. When she feels empty space next to her, she starts panicking but a bright light turns on and she sees Heejin at the switch. They lock gazes for a moment, and then Heejin is in front of with both of her hands on either side of her face.

"Hyunjin, Hyunjin it's me! It's Heejin, you're okay it was just a dream", she rasps out to the soldier as she continues panicking and gasping for air.

"Focus on me Hyunjin, focus on my voice", Hyunjin tries her hardest to listen to Heejin, but she finds it difficult as she can still see Yerim’s face behind her eyelids.

"Open your eyes, Hyunjin open your eyes and look at me, you're okay", she opens her eyes and stares into Heejin’s, slowly she can feel herself calm down.

"Heejin", Hyunjin gasps out as her hands fling out and pull the shorter girl closer to her, needing to touch her to make sure she's not still dreaming.

"Yes, yes it's me", Heejin shifts on her knees so she's eye level with Hyunjin.

"It was just a dream", Hyunjin repeats from Heejin, finally starting to believe it as her hands find their way through the brunette's hair.

"Just a dream", Heejin allows a small smile to find its way on her face as Hyunjin settles down.

She's actually kind of proud that she got Hyunjin to calm down so easily, and even under the circumstance she's not against how close their bodies are right now.

Hyunjin registers it too, it's actually helping her calm down a lot faster. She makes sure her grip on Heejin's hair isn't too tight as she stares into her eyes.

"You're okay, I promise", Heejin whispers to Hyunjin, sending butterflies through her stomach.

Hyunjin lets out a heavy sigh, closing her eyes and leaning her forehead against Heejin's. Heejin pulls Hyunjin closer and moves one hand to her neck and one hand to her back, lightly drawing circles across Hyunjin's skin. It soothes Hyunjin even more, and she gladly scoots farther off the edge of the bed to be closer to Heejin. She can feel the brunette's heart beating, and it's going pretty hard and fast. Hyunjin doesn't blame her though, if she hadn't just been freaking out her heart would probably be going a thousand miles an hour.

The two sit there for a while, Heejin letting Hyunjin settle down and Hyunjin just breathing in Heejin.

"We should probably go back to sleep", Heejin whispers, and Hyunjin want to disagree just so she can stay close to Heejin, but she registers how tired she really is and sighs. She leans back and opens her eyes, finding Heejin's face only inches from hers. Her eyes dart down to her lips, and then back up to her eyes. There are so many emotions in Heejin's eyes that Hyunjin can't decipher which one she's actually feeling. All she wants to do is kiss her, kiss her until she can't breathe.

"Are you okay?" Heejin asks her and she nods, feeling the tension in the air increase when the taller girls’ eyes dart down to her own lips.

"Thank you", Hyunjin stutters out, locked in Heejin's gaze.

"Don't worry about it", Heejin smiles and Hyunjin's heart flutters a little.

It's silent as the two just stare at each other, but a soft knock on the door pulls them apart.

Heejin grunts and gets up to open the door but Hyunjin stops her, "I got it"

She slides past Heejin, their hands grazing over each other. Hyunjin smiles, but it disappears when she opens the door and sees Sooyoung standing there.

"Oh, hey"

"Don't you oh hey me", Sooyoung whisper yells and shoves past Hyunjin.

"Come on in", Hyunjin says sarcastically to herself.

"Oh, I didn't know you two were in here together", Sooyoung says when she sees Heejin sitting on the edge of the bed.

"We weren't-"

"I don't wanna know", the frazzled soldier says and turns to Hyunjin, "What the hell?"

"What?" Hyunjin asks confused.

"What do you mean what? You faded on us Hyunjin! You had me worried sick on the heli and then the showers, and I just woke up to Haseul at my door saying she heard you screaming and-"

"You know I have no control over what triggers me", Hyunjin snaps.

"No, we had this talk. You control everything that happens to you and how you handle it. You could have at least acknowledged us once, said you were okay or that you weren't or something!"

"How am I supposed to acknowledge you when I'm in shock?" Hyunjin asks.

Sooyoung flails her arms a bit, "I don't know! You could've nodded or something, but you didn't have to shut me out"

"Sooyoung", Heejin warns and receives a glare from the taller girl.

"Not shut you out? You expect me to go through all of that and not shut you out? I understand that I haven't done my best to get over Yerim’s death, but I thought Jiwoo and Jungeun were dead. _Dead._ They're my friends, Sooyoung. I wasn't prepared to lose more people. And I get it, we're in the middle of a war and we lose people all the time, but I wasn't going to lose them over Atlas. You have no right to tell me how I'm supposed to react in this situation!"

Sooyoung is quiet and taken aback by Hyunjin's reaction. She's never heard Hyunjin yell before, not like that, "Shit, you're right. I'm sorry"

As quickly as she can, Sooyoung throws her arms around Hyunjin, "I'm so sorry. I was just worried you weren't gonna come back from this one"

Hyunjin smiles sadly and hugs Sooyoung back, "It's alright Sooyoung, you're forgiven"

"You forgive people way too easily", Heejin finally speaks up.

Sooyoung and Hyunjin both laugh and pull away, Sooyoung wiping away a few tears that had escaped.

"So, are you okay?" Sooyoung asks.

"I'm starting to let go, I mean I feel like shit but yeah, I don't think I'll be zoning out again soon"

"Good, that's good"

"Thanks for worrying though", Hyunjin smirks and receives a nudge from Sooyoung as she makes her way out.

"Still an asshole"

"Oh please, I'm an angel", Hyunjin playfully quips at Sooyoung before closing the door.

She turns around to see Heejin smiling at her. She smiles at the sight and walks over to the bed.

"Can we go back to sleep now?" Heejin asks with the smile still plastered on her face.

"We?" Hyunjin says playfully, but Heejin seems to take it seriously and she starts stuttering.

"I mean, I can- I can go back to my unit if you want. You don’t- I mean I didn't mean to-"

"I was kidding, scoot over", Hyunjin laughs.

"Oh", is all Heejin says before smiling again and scooting closer to the wall.

Hyunjin lifts the covers and slides in and immediately cuddles up next to Heejin, throwing an arm around her waist and burying her face in Heejin's neck. Heejin's arm snakes around Hyunjin's waist, the other shifting to Hyunjin's neck.

"Goodnight Heejin", Hyunjin whispers contently.

"Goodnight Hyunjin"

-

When Haseul wakes up it's fairly early, she knows no one is awake since all the hallway lights are still turned off. She smiles to herself, heading down the hall to the locker rooms. She makes sure to pass by Hyunjin's unit on her way, using her Captain’s access to open the door and make sure she's okay. It's still fairly dark in the room, but she can see Hyunjin sleeping soundly. What throws her off is seeing Heejin with her, their legs all tangled up. Haseul laughs quietly when she hears Hyunjin's soft snore, so she closes the door and heads to the locker room.

She notices the lights in the locker room are on, which is weird because she's always the first one awake.

"Hyejoo I swear, you're ridiculous", Haseul recognizes Chaewon's voice echoing off the walls. She turns the corner and sees Hyejoo balancing a soccer ball on the tip of her

nose while Chaewon watches.

"Well good morning", she says and the two instantly perk up.

"Oh, good morning, Captain", Hyejoo says with a stern face, causing Haseul to laugh.

"You don't have to call me Captain all the time, Hyejoo. Just call me Haseul"

"Oh, okay", Hyejoo says and Chaewon laughs.

"Good morning Seul"

Haseul smiles and turns her attention back to Hyejoo, who now has the ball tucked under her arm, "Where'd you get that?"

"Oh uh, Heejin and I always carried one around in case we got some free time somewhere"

"Did you two play before the war started?" Chaewon asks as Haseul heads to her own locker.

"Heejin and I were about to play for college, Yeojin was in a club, and Vivi was already retired", Hyejoo answers shyly.

"When were you in the military then?"

"We all were born at a Fort on the east coast, Yeojin was just starting to go into training and Vivi was our superior officer. About two years before the war, we moved to Texas, Yeojin was still super young so we had to be really careful with our schedules. And then the war started, and we were kind of lone ducks for a while until we heard about Atlas, and the rest is history"

It's silent for a couple of moments as Haseul soaks it in. She knows that Hyejoo is holding back a lot about her life, probably because she's only been here for a couple of days and Haseul understands that. She's heard plenty of stories about Atlas and the way they work. She doesn't even want to think about the things they did to Hyejoo and her team, their interview file gave enough information to say it seemed traumatizing.

"What about Hansol? Heejin's boyfriend?" Haseul asks a little hesitantly.

"Oh yeah, well he kind of came in when we moved to Texas. He played for a men’s club and they met at some team bonding thing. He had some training with the military, so he came with us to Atlas", Hyejoo pauses and seems to contemplate something, "To be honest with you I never liked him. He seemed a little, sketchy. Like he knew something that we didn't. I think that's the reason he got shot last year"

"How did he get shot?"

Haseul feels like she's pushing too much information out of the younger girl, but she doesn't seem to mind, "We were on our way to a rebel outpost in the area, around Montana, and I think Atlas was catching up on us since there was nothing but open field. We got into the rebel camp and Atlas was already there waiting for us. We tried to run but they grabbed Hansol and Heejin tried to put up a fight to get him back, but it was useless. They shot him right in front of Heejin, right here", Hyejoo pointed to the right side of her temple.

Haseul was sitting down by now, listening intently to Hyejoo. She watched Chaewon run a hand over her back and Hyejoo smiles sadly at her.

"It's been a year though, so I'm sure she's over it now. I've seen the way she looks at Hyunjin too. When we were at the Atlas base and Hyunjin came out of cover Heejin froze up and she wouldn't shoot. She's never done that, she always shoots"

"They do seem to have a special bond. You guys have only been here for a couple of days and they're already attached at the hip", Hyejoo laughs at Chaewon's words and it causes Haseul to smile. She can tell the two have something going on between them, so she decides to leave them to themselves.

"Well, thanks for sharing your story. It's something I won't be forgetting soon. I'll see you two at breakfast?"

"Yeah sure", they both reply, and Haseul sends one last nod to them before heading back out.

-

Heejin groans lowly, not wanting to face the light behind her eyes.

"Hyunjin"

She hears a mumble and a hand pulling her closer.

"Hyunjin we have to get up"

"No"

Heejin sighs, slowly opening her eyes. She has to squint against the light, but eventually, her eyes adjust. She doesn't really want to get out of bed, but she knows she has to.

"Fine", she hears Hyunjin say.

They both manage to get up, stretching, and heading towards the showers. Heejin can't help but think it's so domestic, waking up with Hyunjin like there isn't a war going on outside the walls.

"You don't have to stay with me you know", Hyunjin says to Heejin.

Heejin frowns in response, "What do you mean?"

"You're following me around like I'm gonna get lost if you look away for one second"

"I'm just worried about you", Heejin says sincerely.

"I'm not a kid, I can handle myself", Hyunjin snaps, and Heejin's brows furrow.

"Right, I'm sorry", she says, turning the other way and walking back to her unit.

Hyunjin doesn’t reach out to pull her back, doesn’t shout back to grab her attention, so she keeps going and doesn’t look back.

-

"Good morning ladies, I hope you all got a good night’s rest last night because today is going to be a busy day. Minkyung and I have been talking and we decided that it's time for another round of tests", a collection of groans go through the room, "Yes, yes, I know you all hate them but it's necessary. It's been a while since we've had them, and we need to know if any of you can be helpful in different areas. We've come up with your partners already, we'll be heading up to Seattle tomorrow. I expect all of you to cooperate and do these tests to the best of your ability. After lunch, we'll post the partner list outside the hanger, and you all can make your way to your units to pack. We'll only be spending five days there, so pack accordingly. You're dismissed"

"This sucks, I probably won't get you as a partner this time", Sooyoung groans and leans her head on Jinsol's shoulder.

"Oh please, they wouldn't dare pull us apart. It'll be fine babe, it's just five days", Jinsol leans in and kisses Sooyoung softly, earning her a hum.

"Get a room you two", Jiyoon and Monday make gagging noises as she passes by the couple.

The couple laughs and they get up to go to lunch, falling into conversation easily.

-

"Who do you think they're gonna put us with?"

"Probably somebody we don't even know, I wanna be with Chaewon"

"Ugh, you two are already gross"

"Oh, like you and Hyunjin aren't worse?"

"What no, Hyunjin and I aren't-"

“Don't fight me on this one. You and Hyunjin totally have a thing, even if you won't admit it"

Heejin rolls her eyes and turns her attention back to her food. Hyunjin hasn't even acknowledged her since this morning. And maybe they'd been a little, _intimate_ , recently but that doesn't mean anything. Hyunjin hasn't made any moves, not that Heejin shouldn't be the first one to make the move but it would be nice to be given some kind of sign that Hyunjin is on the same frequency as her.

"See! You do like her", Hyejoo practically yells, gaining the attention of a couple of people around.

"Hyejoo, shut the hell up", Heejin glares at her friend, "Fine, yes I like her a little! Are you happy?"

"I knew it!" A new voice says behind Heejin.

She turns around to see Sooyoung standing there with a grin plastered on her face, "Wait Sooyoung-"

"Don't worry I won't tell her", Sooyoung assures her, "But you should know that Hyunnie does feel the same way, she’s just kind of hard to get through at first"

And with that, she walks away with Jinsol in tow behind her. Heejin turns back to Hyejoo, who is smirking at her, so she rolls her eyes again and returns to her lunch.

-

"Hey Hyunjin, can I ask you something?"

"Sure", she says without looking up from her book.

"How does this whole test thing work? Like do you ever really know who you're gonna be put with?"

"Not really. I know Jiwoo and Jungeun are usually together, the same goes for Sooyoung and Jinsol. Haseul and Minkyung know that if they pull them from each other there will be lots of complaining and grumpiness, so they just keep them together. I've been with someone different ever since-", Hyunjin stops herself but pushes through it anyways, "Ever since Yerim died I've been with someone different"

"Oh", is all Yeojin says.

Hyunjin shakes it off though, her dream nightmare thing opened her mind up a bit. It's not that she doesn't want to think about it, she just wants to stop feeling so empty before she goes out to the battlefield. She wants to stop breaking down all the time. And maybe Yerim was right, Heejin seemed to help a lot more than anyone else ever has, but she hasn't talked to her since she snapped at her this morning. She's really going to have to apologize for that later.

-

"Do you think we'll get put together?"

"I don't know, maybe being in the locker room this morning helped Haseul decide whether or not she should"

"I mean, we work well together, right?"

"Hyejoo, you've only been here for like, four days"

"Yeah, doesn't mean I haven't already proven myself", Hyejoo whispers seductively into Chaewon's ear, turning her attention back to the food in front of her.

"You are unbelievable", Chaewon smirks, Hyejoo laughing in return.

-

"What about HeeHyun?"

"That's almost as bad as Solyoung"

"HyunHee?"

"God Jiyoon you're horrible at this, what about 2Jin?"

"Fucking- Yeah, 2Jin, that sounds great"

"What's 2Jin?"

Haseul's voice startles Monday and Jiyoon, causing both of them to go into various stages of screaming.

"Stop screaming it’s just me- What’s 2Jin?"

"Sorry, you scared us"

"Obviously"

"2Jin is Hyunjin and Heejin's ship name", Monday explains.

"Oh no not this again", Haseul mentally facepalms herself.

"Oh yes", Monday and Jiyoon say together, both sporting evil grins.

-

"Chuulip has arrived!" Hyunjin hears Soeun yell after the cafeteria doors open.

She turns her head to the entrance, watching Jiwoo and Jungeun get swarmed by the crowd of girls. She laughs to herself and slowly makes her way over to them, eventually ending up at the front of the group.

"Dude, you look like shit", Jiwoo says to Hyunjin and receives a light tap from Jungeun.

"I can say the same for you", Hyunjin smiles and pulls Jiwoo in for a hug.

"Careful careful careful! Still injured", Jiwoo quickly groans out.

Hyunjin loosens her grip immediately, not wanting to put her best friend in more pain, "Sorry"

"When are we gonna hear the story bitches?" Jiyoon yells from the back of the group.

"Oh, shut up! You can read the file on our traumatic experience", Jungeun says jokingly, earning laughs from the group.

"No but seriously, what was that stuff on the ceiling?" Sooyoung asks.

"Oh, it was just corn syrup and food coloring"

"For what?" Haseul asks incredulously.

"Well, we were planning to trap them but things kind of got out of hand and our bombs exploded a little too early. Jiwoo got covered by one of the shelves and passed out so I had to drag her into a closet so Atlas wouldn't find us"

"They really are dumb", Jiwoo says and everyone laughs again.

"I'm definitely gonna have to read that file", Jaehee says, and everyone nods in agreement.

"We're just glad you survived", Minkyung says as she passes by the group, causing everyone to huddle around the couple in a giant group hug.

-

"Alright everyone settle down. Just form a nice, neat line and we can all just-", Haseul tries to settle the group down but everyone comes at her in a large swarm, so she quickly slides to the side.

Sooyoung is the first one to the paper, followed by Soeun and Yeojin.

"Test Partners:

First Floor:

Soeun and Jaehee

Jiyoon and Monday

Chaewon and Hyejoo

Second Floor:

Jungeun and Jiwoo

Haseul and Vivi

Yeojin and Zoa

Third Floor:

Soojin and Jihan

Jinsol and Sooyoung

Hyunjin and Heejin

p.s. don't make us regret this please"

"Hell yeah Monday!"

"Looks like you're stuck with me Jaehee"

"I knew they wouldn't tear Yvesoul and Chuulip apart!"

"Chaewon look! We're together I told you!"

"Oh no, I hope the second and third floor have earplugs"

"Since when did Hyunjin and Heejin start talking?"

"Since the day they got here you baboon"

"Did we make a mistake?" Haseul asks as the scene unfolds in front of her.

Minkyung chuckles, "Probably, but you gotta have a little fun during a war, right?"

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> txt @kimlippington
> 
> ig @kimberlylippington


	5. V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no TW for this chapter, this one is a crack chapter so enjoy

-

Hyunjin couldn't help but feel relieved that Heejin was her partner. She really needs to apologize for snapping at her earlier, and she really needs to face the fear of her feelings.

"You okay there, Hyun?" Soeun asks Hyunjin as they walk slowly to their units.

"Yeah, just been thinking"

"You mind if I ask what about?"

Hyunjin stops walking, contemplating if she should tell Soeun. She guesses it would be beneficial to get someone else's input to her situation, but she never knows who could be listening or who could find out.

"Come on, let's go to my unit", Hyunjin drags Soeun into the room, shutting the door behind her and locking it just in case.

"Ooookay", Soeun drags out, confused.

"Heejin"

"What?"

"That's who I'm thinking about"

Realization crosses over her face, "OH. _Oh_. So, you, like, like her?"

"I guess you could say that"

"Well, that's good, I think"

"I just don't know how she feels. I mean, she's only been here for a couple of days and I already feel like I've known her all my life. And she calms me down when I start panicking"

"I got you Aeongie, I'll be right back", Soeun says as she starts heading out the door, but Hyunjin grabs her arm and pulls her back.

"Wait, what are you going to say?"

"I don't know yet, I'll think of it on my way there"

Hyunjin rolls her eyes but shoos the younger girl out anyway, hoping that she won't blow anything.

-

Heejin falls on her bed the second she gets in her unit, tired already from the interaction of everyone. She's so tired of thinking, mostly about Hyunjin, about how the test will go, about everything really. She wishes she would stop thinking about Hyunjin though. She feels like she's going through some high school crush, which isn’t exactly the best feeling considering their current situation.

"So, what are you gonna do about Hyunjin?" Heejin hears Sooyoung sit down in her chair.

"I don't know", she groans into a pillow and turns on her back, "I wish I could just ask her how she feels but she's already got a lot on her plate"

"Just give it some time"

"But what if she gives up? What if she's waiting for me to make a move and I never do so she just gives up?"

"Hyunjin's stubborn, she won't give up that easily unless you tell her clearly that you want nothing to do with her", Sooyoung snorts and notices the guitar in the corner of the room.

"You can play it if you want", Heejin says lazily, falling onto her back and running a hand over her face.

She hears Sooyoung pick it up and strum it a couple of times before she hears it start to come together, she guesses she's just messing around with it.

"Hey, you're Heejin right?" Heejin practically jumps off her bed when she hears an unfamiliar voice in her doorway.

She looks up and sees one of the younger girls in the company standing there looking at her, "Yeah. Soeun right?"

"Yeah, but you can call me Soeun", she smiles widely, but Heejin feels a little confused and looks to Sooyoung for help, but the girl is focused on playing the guitar.

_So it’s true. The younger ones are completely unhinged. Awesome!_

"Um, what's up?" Heejin asks, more than slightly confused.

"I just saw you got paired with Hyunjin, that's pretty cool", Sooyoung stops strumming the guitar and stares widely at Soeun.

Heejin's heartbeat picks up slightly, not knowing how to react so she acts indifferent, "Uh yeah, it's whatever-"

"How do you feel about it?"

Heejin is so much more than confused now, why is Soeun asking her this? Does she know? Because if she does Heejin is going to have to have a very long talk with Sooyoung and Hyejoo.

"I'm not really excited about it if that's what you mean. It's only for five days, nothing special"

Sooyoung gives her a _'what the hell'_ look that she slightly shrugs to, "Oh, well that's cool, I guess. Have fun, she's always fun to room with!"

And with that the young soldier walks away, leaving Sooyoung and Heejin alone in silence.

"Do you think she knows?" Heejin asks quietly.

"She knows something, that's for sure"

"You didn't tell anyone right?"

"No! And I made Jinsol swear to secrecy", Sooyoung says slightly offended.

"That leaves Hyejoo", Heejin whispers to herself.

She makes the split decision to jump up and sprint down the hall to Hyejoo’s room, earning a couple of weird looks from her new teammates. She's sure she has her Face of Determination and Eminent Death on, judging by the way Vivi and Yeojin quickly step away from her as she passes them. She finally makes it to Hyejoo's room and swings the door open. Her eyes dart around the room until they finally land on Hyejoo, kissing Chaewon very non-innocently.

"What the hell Heejin?" Hyejoo yells and moves off of Chaewon.

"Oh, for the love of god, lock your door if you're gonna be sneaking around like this", Heejin covers her eyes just in case, "Are you at least fully clothed?"

"Yeah, what do you want?"

Heejin uncovers her eyes and meets Hyejoo's glare with her own, "Have you told anyone?"

"About what?"

"The thing", Heejin practically growls.

Hyejoo narrows her eyes, but then they blow wide and she starts shaking her head, "No, why would I tell anyone?"

"Uh, I don't mean to interrupt but what are you guys talking about?" Chaewon asks.

Hyejoo looks at Heejin, who has now grown pale, for any sign that she could tell Chaewon.

"I may or may not have a slight crush on Hyunjin and Sooyoung overheard me tell Hyejoo and somehow Soeun knows something about it", Heejin says quickly, clenching her fists to calm herself.

"I didn't tell anyone, and no one but Sooyoung was around us when you confessed so I don't understand how-"

"Oh my god what if Hyunjin already knows"

"If Hyunjin knew she would have already asked you about it, alone", Chaewon explains.

"So, I just have to avoid being alone with her?"

"Heejin you're rooming with her", Hyejoo reminds Heejin, and she just slumps her shoulders and pouts on the way out of the room.

There’s no way to avoid it if Hyunjin knows, so all she can really do is pray that she knows nothing.

-

"I don't know Hyunjin, she seemed kind of whatever about it. Or that's what she kept saying", Hyunjin's shoulders slump, as does her mood.

"What else did she say?" Hyunjin knew the answer was going to break her heart somehow, but she asked anyway.

Soeun sighs, not wanting to break Hyunjin's heart but she deserves to know, "When I asked how she felt about it she called it nothing special"

"Oh", is all Hyunjin says.

"Sorry dude", Soeun pats Hyunjin's shoulders a little, walking out of the unit to give Hyunjin some alone time.

She knows Hyunjin is already head over heels, or at least getting there, and if Heejin really didn't feel the same way this was all going to go downhill very fast. They should all be focused on the task at hand, the war. But even Soeun knows that the girls need an escape from it, someone to be with when it all ends. Jaehee was Soeun's person, even though they were only best friends she still felt like she could count on Jaehee to be there when it's all over. She's kind of scared that everyone will part ways eventually. She doesn't want to leave anyone at all, she hopes they all stick together somewhere just in case.

-

"Come on ladies we don't have all day", Haseul yells out into the hanger.

"I think I forgot my toothbrush", Jiwoo says as she pats her bag.

"I have it babe", Jungeun waves the toothbrush in its case in Jiwoo's face, earning her a sneer.

"Ugh, we're taking the team bus, wonderful", Hyunjin groans as the giant bus comes into view.

"What's bad about the bus?" Hyejoo asks next to her.

"Nothing, I would just rather be in my truck or something"

"Do you have to go on the team bus?"

"Yep", Hyunjin pops, lugging her bag into the bottom of the bus and hopping on.

She walks to the back where Jinsol and Sooyoung already are, throwing herself into the window seat and pulling her black baseball cap over her face. She pulls out her headphones, quickly plugging them into her iPod and putting it on shuffle. She doesn't notice everyone packing onto the bus, she's half asleep by the time Haseul says they're heading out. She feels a tap on her shoulder, pulling her from her almost sleep. She rubs the sleep from her eyes and looks to her right. Heejin is smiling softly at her, a yellow beanie laying lazily on the back of her head. Hyunjin smiles back, but then remembers lashing out at Heejin and frowns.

"Hey, it's okay. I was being a little overbearing, you had every right to be a little irritated", Heejin whispers just loud enough for Hyunjin to hear her.

"I still shouldn't have snapped like that, I'm sorry"

Heejin rolls her eyes and smiles, "Apology accepted, Hyunnie"

"No", Hyunjin cries out, "Not you too"

"Yep, Sooyoung let me in on that little nickname", Heejin pokes Hyunjin playfully.

"Very funny, come here you weirdo", Hyunjin throws an arm around Heejin, pulling her closer and giving her hair a good ruffle.

"Hyunjin no!" Heejin laughs and tries to wriggle away but Hyunjin keeps her in place.

Eventually, Heejin gives up and wraps her arms around Hyunjin's waist, laying her head on her shoulder, "It's gonna be a long ride, might as well get some sleep"

"Hey, Hyunjin?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm glad you got us to stay"

"Why?"

"If I had never met you, I wouldn't have you and a bunch of new friends"

A sad smile stretches across Hyunjin's lips.

Yeah, friends.

-

Hyunjin is deep asleep when she feels a tug on her arm, "Hyunjin?"

Hyunjin mumbles a reply, but it's obviously not good enough for whoever is trying to wake her up because there's another tug on her arm, but harder.

"What?" Hyunjin says a little louder, using a lot of her energy to say it all.

"Hyunjin, wake up"

She groans loudly and opens her eyes to see Heejin staring intensely at her. She's all in the taller girl’s gaze, unable to say anything as she stares into her new favorite brown eyes. Her gaze slowly moves from Heejin's eyes to her lips, the ones she’s been wanting to kiss so bad.

"Hyunjin", Heejin whispers and she looks back up, noticing how they both were looking at each other’s lips.

Hyunjin realizes how close she is to Heejin and remembers her thoughts before she fell asleep. She leans back in her seat and pretends to change the song on her iPod, trying to gather her thoughts before she loses it.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"They stopped the bus so we could stretch, do you want to get off?", Hyunjin hears a hint of disappointment in Heejin's voice, but ignores it.

"Sure", Hyunjin stands and follows Heejin off the bus, taking in her surroundings.

They stopped a couple of miles away from the beach, but she can still see the water on the shore. The sun is slowly setting, creating a pinkish glow in the sky. Everyone is spread out on the edge of the highway, some stretching and some just watching the sunset. She follows Heejin to the edge of the highway, sitting on the broken highway divider. Heejin jumps over it and stretches her arms out, lifting her shirt up in the process. The noise she makes should be illegal, as well as the sight in general, it sends a wave of tingles up Hyunjin’s spine. Her eyes trail over Heejin's defined abs, almost getting caught by Heejin when she opens her eyes back up. Heejin sits next to Hyunjin, a little closer than usual but Hyunjin thinks nothing of it.

"It's pretty, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is", Hyunjin isn't really paying attention to the sunset, but Heejin instead. The pink glow makes the honey brown in her eyes glow more, it makes them a little tanner than anything but it's beautiful to Hyunjin anyway. She doesn't even care when Heejin catches her staring, she smiles and Hyunjin smiles back instantly.

"Why're you staring at me?" Heejin asks with a smile still on her face.

"Because you're beautiful", Hyunjin doesn't know what kind of courage she got to say it, but she did and she's absolutely sure Heejin is blushing now. Hyunjin smirks and shifts her gaze to Heejin's smile. She doesn't notice Heejin slightly leaning forward, she doesn't even notice herself leaning forward.

-

"Guys it's about to happen shut up", Jiyoon whisper yells to the group that had formed behind Heejin and Hyunjin. They watch closely as the two soldiers continue leaning forward, it seems like it's taking them forever, but their lips are only inches apart. They can all tell the air is tense and it's quiet, everyone on the tip of their toes to celebrate. The group leans slowly forward, still waiting for the moment to-

"Alright ladies, back on the bus!"

_"Are you serious!?"_

Everyone shouts and cries out loudly as Heejin and Hyunjin flinch apart. Sooyoung and Jiyoon drop to the ground and run hands over their faces. Jinsol and Soeun are giving Haseul the best death glares they can give as they get back on the bus. Jungeun and Jiwoo both feel like they just lost a seriously important game, slumping their shoulders and groaning as they watch Hyunjin and Heejin move apart and get back on the bus.

"We were so close", Sooyoung wails with Jiyoon on the ground.

"Alright, come on guys", Jiwoo pulls Jiyoon up as Jungeun pulls Sooyoung up, both of them patting their backs to try and cheer them up.

"Maybe next time", Jungeun says, a little sad that Haseul ruined the perfect moment.

"Haseul can't be anywhere near when it happens", Jiyoon snaps, obviously pissed off.

Jiwoo sighs when the two are finally on the bus, "This is gonna be a long five days"

-

_So that totally wasn't awkward_ , Hyunjin thinks.

She noticed how everyone was watching behind them, and she finally noticed how close she was to Heejin when they jumped apart. She wasn't complaining, not really. She was just upset that Haseul had ruined a perfect moment. Okay maybe she was complaining a little, she was about to kiss Heejin! Like, actually kiss her. On the lips. In the best way possible. So yeah, she was complaining and silently fuming in her window seat, but she wasn't going to let it bother her. Or she wasn't going to let it get in the way of her fighting or thinking during these tests.

"Sorry Hyunjin", Jinsol whispers as the bus finally starts moving again.

Hyunjin just shrugs, ignoring Heejin looking at her and turning back to the scenery passing by. She falls asleep eventually, once it gets dark. Her sleep is restless and empty, she's glad she hasn't dreamed anything since last night, but she'd like to do something besides toss and turn a bunch.

"Take your time getting to your rooms. Sooman will be there to give you your keys, just try to get off the bus asap. I don't want him to be up all night waiting for any of you", Hyunjin hears when she starts waking up. Heejin is still asleep next to her, obviously not used to hearing Haseul's voice yet.

Jinsol and Sooyoung are up and stretching, waiting for everyone in front of them to get off. Sooyoung sends a smile Hyunjin's way, getting one in return but it's a tired one. Sooyoung chuckles, walking down the aisle and leaving Heejin alone with Hyunjin once again.

"Heejin", no response, "Heejin come on we gotta get up"

"I don't wanna", she mumbles, shifting so she's leaning on Hyunjin.

"Come on, just get off the bus and I'll carry you to the room"

Heejin hums in delight and slowly stands up, stretching her arms over her head again and walking off the bus, "Thanks for driving Minkyung"

Hyunjin smiles at Heejin's half-asleep state, thanking Minkyung and walking after Heejin, "Hey Soo, can you take our bags up for us? I have to carry Heejin up"

Sooyoung rolls her eyes but smiles anyways, "You guys are gross"

"Not as gross as your face", Heejin mumbles and throws her arms around Hyunjin.

"Oh my gosh", Hyunjin burst out laughing at Sooyoung's offended face.

"Sleepy Heejin is a bitch", Jinsol laughs and plants a kiss on Sooyoung's cheek, instantly cheering her up.

"Yeah, we're the gross ones", Hyunjin says as she plants her chin on Heejin's shoulder.

Jinsol and Sooyoung share a look as Heejin buries her face in Hyunjin’s neck, "Definitely. "

"Welcome back ladies, is this Jeon Heejin?" Sooman smiles at the group when they finally enter the building.

"Yep, but don't worry, she's usually way more useful than this"

"Bunny is just a little tired"

"Bunny?" Hyunjin asks incredulously, giving Sooyoung a weird look.

"I had to fitness test her after she got settled in and she runs the fastest mile I've ever seen. You should've seen her run a lap on the track"

"So, you called her _Bunny_?"

"Hyunjin, please god let it go, and let's get to our room please?" Jinsol pouts.

"Fine", she turns her attention to Sooman who is grinning at them, "I'll take the keys"

Sooman hands her the keys in her free hand, walking them to the elevator, "Breakfast is at 9, we'll start training at 11. Goodnight ladies, get some rest. It's going to be a long week"

"You got it boss", Hyunjin says and hits the button for the third floor.

There's minimal complaining from Sooyoung for having to carry their bags, and Hyunjin is just glad she finally gets to lay down and sleep. When she enters the room she sets Heejin down, searching for a light, and finally finds a lamp on a table by the window. The room is colored a light grey, a single fan cools the room and there’s a door to the bathroom to the right of the entrance. Two beds take up most of the space, it looks mostly like a hotel room except for the single lock on the door and no TV.

"Thanks, guys, you can just set them down on the extra bed"

"You're sleeping in the same bed?" Jinsol asks.

Hyunjin internally panics for a second, "Well I just assumed she'd want to so-"

"Hyunnie, shut up", Sooyoung chuckles and drags Jinsol out of the room.

"No sex please!" Hyunjin yells after them, hearing Jinsol laugh loudly.

Hyunjin yawns and lifts her arms overhead, starting to head to the bathroom but Heejin pulls Hyunjin into the bed. She throws a leg over Hyunjin's and holds her down with an arm, burying her head into the crook of Hyunjin's neck.

"Shower in the morning", she mumbles.

"But I don't want to stay in these clothes", Hyunjin retorts.

"Quit complaining and go to sleep"

Hyunjin shakes her head but she shifts to get comfortable anyway. Heejin leans closer into her, if that was even possible, and sighs contently. Hyunjin would've told Heejin to use the pillows but she didn't want to wake Heejin even more or risk not getting to fall asleep in her arms. And she definitely wouldn't have let Heejin keep her down if they hadn't almost kissed earlier, considering the fact that Soeun told her Heejin only thought of them as friends. But what if Heejin only liked the idea of Hyunjin? It got pretty lonely during a war, Hyunjin wouldn't exactly blame Heejin for wanting to be with someone when half the population is dead. Hyunjin just hopes Heejin really feels the same way, for her own sake.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twt @kimlippington
> 
> ig @kimberlylippington


	6. VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> possible T/CW: nightmare in the beginning (dreams are always in italics), and implied suicidal thoughts near the end of the chapter.

-

_It was dark and cold, Heejin could feel droplets of water from the ceiling running down her arms and neck. She's been here before, she knows she has, but she can't remember where she is or why she feels so panicked. A dim light shines through a grate near the ceiling, barely illuminating the room. Heejin looks around the room, trying to find any sign of escape. There's no door or anything, only the tiny grate in the wall._

_She walks over to the grate and looks out. She can't see anything besides bright light, it seems too bright to not be illuminating the room._

_"Wonderful", Heejin whispers to herself and turns back to the room._

_Something seems different about it, Heejin's eyebrows furrow as she carefully examines the room. After what feels like forever, she realizes the room is slowly getting tinier and she starts to panic._

_"No, no, no please no", she says as she runs her hands over the walls._

_The speed seems to pick up and Heejin starts panicking even more. She hates small spaces, hates it more than anything. She pushes against the wall more, but the speed picks up even more the more she pushes. She turns back to the grate and runs over to it, standing on her toes to look out._

_"Someone help me!" She screams, hoping someone will hear her but nothing happens._

_She turns back to the room and she's sure it's only as long as two of her, "Oh please, please don't let this be happening"_

_She slides down the wall and leans her head back. She's kind of used to these dreams by now, but she can't help but panic when these things start happening. It's kind of like the war, she's used to the fighting and the dying, but she's still scared of walking out of safety every day. She's scared of leaving Hyunjin, but she's even more scared of Hyunjin leaving her. She's not even going to try and deny her feelings, they're there and she can't ignore the sparks she gets when Hyunjin touches her or the butterflies when she looks at her._

_"Heejin"_

No.

_"Heejin look at me"_

_"No", she squeezes her shut and tries to wake up, but more voices fill the room._

_"Look at us Heejin"_

_"Face what you've done Heejin"_

_"Why won't you face your fears Heejin?"_

_"Stop!" She screams and covers her ears, but the voices fill her head too._

_"Look at what you've done", her head flings up at that one voice. The voice that made living in this cruel world easier. She stares into those light brown eyes, seeing all the pain and sorrow a person could have in her eyes._

_"I'm sorry", Heejin rasps out but it's no use. Everyone in the room, all the faces of fear and death lunge out at her and she wants to scream but she can't. She's staring into the eyes of Hansol now, and his face is the same as it was when he was shot._

_"No!" Heejin screams as everyone in the room reaches out towards her. They all yell and scream at her, reminding her of everything she's done, and she can't take it anymore._

-

Heejin gasps awake, feeling sweat drip down her forehead. She looks around the room, noticing the lamplight still on, she's glad she didn't wake up in the dark. She stumbles out of the bed, needing to get cool air onto her body. She throws the curtain on the window back and sighs when the early morning light pours in. She twists around and runs to the bathroom, immediately splashing cold water onto her face when she gets to the sink. She gasps again and feels her heart beating hard and fast, she feels like it could pop out of her chest at any moment.

She looks into the mirror, flinching at the sight. Dark, heavy bags sit under her eyes, her face stained with tears. She stares into her own dark brown eyes, not liking the emotions she’s seeing so she tears her gaze away. And then she feels the tingling all on her back and her neck. She thinks she can stand it until it goes away but she has to rip her shirt off after a couple of minutes. She turns her back to the mirror, trailing her eyes over the marks on her back. A burn for every ten deaths, a burn for every reminder of what she's done. She looks away, remembering the feeling of the burns when she first got them. She turns back around to face the mirror, placing both hands on the counter and taking deep breaths.

Slowly, she feels herself calming down. The tingling from her back is replaced with a numbness that she hates. She closes her eyes and continues breathing for what seems like forever, trying to get the burned image of the faces of death off of her eyelids. She hates those dreams, she hates seeing all of the dead faces and hearing all the screams she caused. She hates it all, and the new addition to the faces is making her anxious, scared, terrified really. She doesn't want anything to happen to Hyunjin. If anything were to happen it should be to her. Hyunjin doesn't deserve any of it, Heejin does.

And just like that, she feels fingers trailing over back. Heejin internally scoffs at how Hyunjin pops up when she starts thinking about her.

Heejin focuses on the way Hyunjin's fingers glide across her skin, curing the numbness and replacing it with a light fire that follows wherever she touches.

"I'm sorry if I woke you up", Heejin whispers.

"Don't worry about it", Hyunjin whispers back, both of her arms snaking around Heejin's stomach. She rests her head on Heejin's shoulder, one of her hands still tracing over her hip bones. It calms Heejin, even though she feels her skin light up at Hyunjin's touch.

They stand there for a while, Hyunjin trying to calm Heejin down and Heejin taking in the feeling of Hyunjin. She's been calm for a while now, but she doesn't want to leave Hyunjin's arms. She turns around in Hyunjin's arms, slowly wrapping her arms loosely around her neck. She opens her eyes and sees Hyunjin looking at her with an emotion she can't place. She's caught in her stare, the light from the mirror catches Hyunjin's eyes at the right angle and they look hazel to Heejin. She unconsciously moves her hand and trails her fingers over Hyunjin's sharp jawline, taking in everything about her. They lean their foreheads together, Heejin sighing at finally being this close to Hyunjin again.

"Soeun told me you weren't excited about rooming with me", Heejin furrows her brows as Hyunjin speaks, "That you just thought of it as two friends sleeping in the same room, nothing special"

Heejin doesn't know what to say, but she knew Soeun was trying to get information from her. She tries to talk to Hyunjin through her eyes, but she doesn't think it's working as the girl maintains her blank stare.

"But I'm having a hard time believing that this is just a friend thing", Hyunjin whispers and looks back up at Heejin.

"I never thought it was just a friend thing", Heejin watches Hyunjin lick and pull on her lips, it makes her do the same thing.

She shares one last look with Hyunjin before finally closing the gap between their lips. The butterflies in her stomach erupt, causing a light wave of shivers all over her body as the reality sets in.

Hyunjin's lips are soft and gentle, almost like she's scared to kiss Heejin. The kiss feels a little hesitant, so Heejin pulls Hyunjin a little closer to let her know it's okay. Hyunjin seems to get the idea and kisses Heejin a little harder, which Heejin gladly returns. Hyunjin's hand glide over her hips and pull their midsections closer together.

They continue kissing, growing heated as they keep going. They turn into open mouth kisses, Heejin gliding her tongue over Hyunjin's bottom lip, asking for entrance. Hyunjin gladly lets her in, both of them fighting for dominance. Heejin moans lowly when Hyunjin's tongue trails over hers, it sends sparks through her body. She pulls back a little until they're just kissing and pulls on Hyunjin’s lip, earning her a groan. Heejin smirks and pushes Hyunjin until her back hits the wall.

Heejin is lost in the feeling of Hyunjin's lips on hers, she runs her hands over Hyunjin's stomach, tracing over the defined abs. Heejin almost forgets she's only in her bra until Hyunjin’s hands trail up her stomach until she's lightly gripping her neck. Heejin's lungs are burning so she pulls back, frowning at not kissing Hyunjin. She looks at Hyunjin and the girl smirks, flipping their positions so that Heejin is pushed up against the wall. Heejin gasps at Hyunjin's control, groaning when she feels Hyunjin's lips latch onto her neck. She feels Hyunjin kiss and suck on her skin, moving her neck back so she can get more access. She moans a little louder than she should have when Hyunjin bites at her neck, laughing at herself.

Heejin can't take it anymore and pulls Hyunjin back up until their faces are inches apart again.

"Hi", Heejin smiles at Hyunjin, biting her lip to keep from looking like an idiot.

"Hey", Hyunjin says back, pushing Heejin's stray hairs back. It's such an intimate move that Heejin crashes their lips back together. Heejin feels like she can barely stand with how good of a kisser Hyunjin is, the feeling of their lips moving together causes a low burn in her stomach.

"Heejin'", Hyunjin mumbles against her lips so Heejin stops.

"Yeah?"

"As much as I already love kissing you, breakfast is in five minutes"

Heejin groans and Hyunjin laughs at her, planting a lingering kiss on Heejin's lips before walking out of the bathroom. Heejin sighs happily once Hyunjin is out of earshot, smiling to herself in the mirror.

"You still got it, Jeon", she says to herself, walking out of the bathroom to start the long day.

-

"Did you have to use your earplugs last night Hyunnie?" Jiyoon asks with a smirk on her face. Hyunjin isn't looking at her but she hears skin getting slapped, Jinsol probably smacked her or something.

"It was surprisingly quiet on the other side tonight", Hyunjin says as she sits down.

"Is Yvesoul having a dry spell?" Jiyoon gasps dramatically but receives another slap.

"No, you weirdo, we just know how to keep quiet", Jinsol says as she rolls her eyes.

Sooyoung laughs as she sits down on the other side of Jiyoon, "But it's very hard to keep quiet when Jinsol-"

_"WOAH, NO SHUT UP",_ Jiyoon screams and covers her ears as Sooyoung leans closer to her.

Hyunjin ends up choking on her food and Heejin just sits there laughing at Jiyoon's reaction.

"You guys are the worst", Jiyoon whines.

"But you love us", Sooyoung says with her scrunched nose.

"Yeah yeah", Jiyoon says and looks in Heejin's direction. Hyunjin notices her eyes narrow and grows curious, turning to Heejin and almost instantly seeing the problem. A medium-sized hickey is exposed on the right side of her neck. Hyunjin is about to get up and tell her but Jiyoon beats her to it.

"Heejin…is that a hickey on your neck?"

Heejin's eyes blow wide and she scrambles to find it on her neck. She tries feeling it but it’s pointless. Hyunjin watches her emotion go from nervous to slightly angry.

"I don't know, is it Hyunjin?" Heejin stares straight at Hyunjin.

Everyone shifts in their seat to look at the pale soldier, she turns bright red and rubs the back of her neck habitually.

"Uh, you see what happened-"

"OH MY GOD THEY FINALLY KISSED AND WE DIDN'T GET TO SEE IT", Jiyoon stands and yells, causing everyone else at other tables to turn around.

"You didn't", Sooyoung says, offended.

"Well, um, you see-"

"Yes, we kissed. In fact, I couldn't help but-“

_"NOOO"_ , everyone in the room cries out and covers their ears. Hyunjin laughs loudly, Heejin laughing with her.

"That is the last thing I expected to hear when I woke up this morning", Haseul's voice travels to everyone.

"Seul!" Sooyoung and mostly all the goofy girls get up and practically tackle Haseul.

"Yeah, yeah, good morning everyone", Haseul says as she squeezes out of the group. Everyone in the room laughs, moving their attention back to their respective tables.

Everyone turns back to their conversations, Heejin scoots down the table until she's next to Hyunjin and takes her hand. Hyunjin smiles at Heejin, rubbing her thumb across Heejin's skin.

"So, does this mean you two are, like, dating?" Jaehee asks Hyunjin and Heejin.

"Yeah, I guess it does", Heejin smiles widely and looks at Hyunjin who also smiles and nods back.

Jaehee laughs loudly, "Hyunjin would be the one to find a girlfriend while there's a war going on"

"Hey!" Jinsol, Sooyoung, and Hyejoo all say at the same time, but Hyejoo quickly covers her mouth as Chaewon stops chewing.

Everyone is quiet, mostly because they're waiting for either of them to speak up.

"Uh, something you guys wanna tell us?" Vivi says from across the room.

Hyejoo slumps into her chair and looks at Chaewon, who still hasn't moved at all.

"Hyejoo and I are together", Chaewon finally says.

"Chaejoo!"

"Hyewon!"

Jiyoon and Monday say at the same time, Jiyoon grunting, "Why do you always come up with the better names?"

"Because I'm smarter"

"Are not"

"Are too"

"Prove it!"

"Ladies!" Jaden's voice scares mostly everyone in the room.

"Jaden!" Everyone but Heejin's group yells.

"This is going to be an interesting day", Hyunjin whispers to Heejin.

"Tell me about it", she laughs and plants a quick kiss on her cheek.

-

"Chaewon I am so sorry I didn't mean to blurt that out", Hyejoo says as fast as she can as soon as the door closes.

When breakfast was over Jaden had a quick meeting with everyone, mostly to just go over what they would be doing. Chaewon hadn't said a word to Hyejoo the entire time or looked her way and Hyejoo was worried she'd screwed things up already.

"It's just, I want to be proud to be with you and I don't wanna hide it. I mean I know it's only been like two days and I should've asked you first, but I just like you a lot and I am so sorry I really hope this doesn't screw things up-"

Chaewon rolls her eyes, finally looking at Hyejoo, "Shut up"

Hyejoo is confused at first, but then Chaewon is marching towards her and pushing her up against the door. Their lips crash together and Hyejoo finally relaxes, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend.

"Wait, so you're not mad at me?" Hyejoo asks, still kissing Chaewon.

"No, you idiot, you just caught me off guard"

Hyejoo smiles against Chaewon's lips, happy that it was going to work out and she wouldn't have to worry.

"Stop smiling so I can actually kiss you", Chaewon whines, hooking her fingers in Hyejoo jeans as she pulls her back to the bed.

"It's hard not to when it's you I'm kissing", Hyejoo pants lightly, pushing Chaewon onto the bed and crawling after her.

"You're such a sap"

"Only for you"

Chaewon pulls on Hyejoo’s neck so she can finally kiss her, both of them sighing when their lips

finally meet. It grows heated quickly, both of their hands starting to roam a little farther than usual. Hyejoo could feel herself grow a little anxious, she didn't know if they were moving too fast or if they both wanted this.

"Wait", it's Chaewon who stops, Hyejoo immediately pulling back.

"Yeah?"

"I think we should…not"

"Oh, thank god", Hyejoo sighs, "I was thinking the same thing"

Chaewon sighs and smiles too, but her face grows confused when Hyejoo starts sliding off of her, "Um hello, that doesn't mean we can't make out?"

Hyejoo rolls her eyes happily, crawling back onto Chaewon and urgently kissing her again.

-

"Alright, ladies. Today is a big day, the first day you'll be taking the tests with your partners. I'm glad to see there are new editions to EDEN, I'm positive you'll jump into this program smoothly"

Heejin smiles politely, waving when heads turn her way.

"Now today you'll be given your partner test, I'm not going to tell you what it is or what goes with it, just be in your conference rooms when we say. The list is on the wall outside the room, I'll see you all later"

-

"First floor is conference rooms 1-3 at 11, second floor is 4-6 at 12, third floor is 7-9 at 1", Haseul calls out to the large crowd of girls behind her.

"Do we do anything while we wait?"

"Doesn't say anything, I'm guessing we just chill out until then"

A couple of girls cheer in the back, the group slowly disperses out of the room and to their own rooms. The first floor still had a couple of minutes until they had to go to the conference rooms, so they just relaxed in the lounge.

"So, what do you wanna do for two hours?" Sooyoung asks as she walks down the hall with Jinsol.

"I have a pretty good idea", Jinsol smirks and grabs Sooyoung’s hand, pulling her down the hall

faster.

Sooyoung smirks to herself, gladly following Jinsol. But when Jinsol drags her past their room she grows confused, "Uh, babe?"

"Be patient", Jinsol turns back and smiles at Sooyoung, causing Sooyoung to smile back.

Sooyoung grips Jinsol’s hand tighter, following her farther down the hall and towards the stairwell. Jinsol pushes past the door, leading Sooyoung up the stairs. They go past five more floors until the stairs stop and open up to a dimly lit room. Two large steel doors are on the other side of the room, Jinsol walks up to them, tapping on a keypad until a beep rings through the room. Jinsol opens the doors, Sooyoung following swiftly.

Sooyoung’s breath is taken away when her eyes adjust to the sunlight. They're on the top of the building which has a perfect view of the Mobius base. Sooyoung can see all the soldiers training in the distance, driving and running through the field like she was a couple of years ago. The sun is set high in the sky, but the blue of the sky brings happiness to Sooyoung. Things almost seem normal to her, there are no signs of war here in Seattle and it makes her so happy.

She turns back to Jinsol who is staring at her lovingly and she can feel her heart flutter. She quickly runs up to Jinsol, jumping up and wrapping her arms around her girlfriend’s neck. Jinsol laughs and holds Sooyoung up in her arms, breathing in the scent of apples and lavender that Sooyoung radiates.

"I love you"

"I love you more"

Sooyoung scoffs, "Funny"

"But it's true", Jinsol whispers and carefully sets Sooyoung down.

Jinsol wastes no time in pressing her lips softly against Sooyoung’s. She stands on her toes to reach her better, running her hands through Sooyoung’s hair as they kiss. Sooyoung pulls Jinsol closer by her hips, slightly lifting her up so she doesn't have to reach so far.

Sooyoung has never felt happier than right now, feeling Jinsol’s lips move against her owns with the base sounds behind her. She almost loses herself in the feeling but a lack of oxygen to her lungs pulls her back.

"I seriously love you", Sooyoung whispers again, leaning her forehead against Jinsol’s shoulder,

"So much"

Jinsol hears her sniffle and grows slightly concerned, "Woah hey, what's wrong?"

Sooyoung scoffs, leaning away from Jinsol and wiping the tears that are slowly making their way out of her eyes, "It's so fucked up"

"What is?"

"This entire situation", Sooyoung yells as she turns away from Jinsol, "This entire war"

"Well yeah, I know that, but you've never gotten this emotional about it, Soo, what's wrong?" Jinsol is starting to get seriously worried, Sooyoung’s voice is cracking and she's leaning against the side of the building.

"I love you Jinsol, that's what's wrong", Jinsol feels her heart sink, "I love you and we're in the middle of a war! We have to wake up early every day just to go out and survive, hell I’m scared to wake up because I'm so afraid that today could be the day I lose you or you lose me. God, we should be waking up early in each other's arms in some apartment in Cali, smiling because we're with each other and we're happy not smiling because we survived another day. I should be excited to wake up to another day because it means I get to go out and dance and you get to go be a vocalist for your studio, I shouldn't be afraid. I don't want to be afraid, I want to be happy"

Jinsol is silent for a moment, she had no idea Sooyoung was holding all of this in. She knew Sooyoung hated the war situation, how both of them had been thrown into it together. She couldn't count on one hand how many years they'd been together. She can still remember the day she met Sooyoung at a college party. She was coaching the resident vocal group for the week when her friends dragged her out to one of the parties happening in some frat house. She was told it was to get the college experience again, but she knew it was just an excuse for her friends to get drunk. But she followed them anyway and that's when she met Sooyoung. Sooyoung was surprisingly not drunk and had accidentally bumped into Jinsol when they both rounded the corner. Jinsol fell in love instantly, and somehow by the end of the night they both had each other's numbers and romance ensued from there.

They've been together for 9 years, Jinsol was actually planning on proposing a couple of months before the war started but she got pulled away to a vocal camp. But when the war actually started Sooyoung was heartbroken, almost to the point where she didn't even want to get to safety. Jinsol dragged her out to Seattle where they stayed with Mobius for a while until getting moved to EDEN. Sooyoung got better over the years and they were still a strong couple, but Jinsol guesses after seven years of war Sooyoung was getting tired.

"Jinsol please say something before I lose my mind", Sooyoung begs, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks.

"Sooyoung", Jinsol whispers as she tries to control the tears, "I know you're scared, I know you hate this situation but we can't help it. We were thrown into this together and we have to work

hard to stay together. I love you, Sooyoung, and I know there's a soldier still in you that's willing to fight for this"

"I'm tired of fighting Jinsol", Sooyoung chokes out and slides to the ground, dragging Jinsol down with her.

"I know baby, I know", Jinsol doesn't know what else to say so she just holds Sooyoung as she cries. Jinsol knows nothing but ending the war will make things better, but she'd do anything to make the love of her life happy.

-

"So, what's this test thing we're doing?" Chaewon asks Sooman when they finally walk into the room.

"You're going to talk"

Hyejoo and Chaewon are both silent.

"To each other, about anything you want"

"So, we're just gonna stay in here for an hour, alone?" Hyejoo asks hesitantly.

"Exactly. And don't worry, we're not watching or listening. We just want you two to talk and get to know each other for the next four days"

"Seems easy enough", Chaewon says as she leans back into the couch.

"Good, so I'll see you ladies in an hour", Sooman says, finally leaving the room.

"Oh my god I thought he was never gonna leave", Hyejoo sighs as she falls into Chaewon's lap.

"Oh hush, you'll get alone time with me anyways"

"Mmm, I like the sound the sound of that", Hyejoo reaches up and pulls Chaewon down to her, slowly bringing their lips together.

They kiss slowly and passionately, Chaewon carefully moving so that Hyejoo is underneath her. Hyejoo runs her hands underneath Chaewon's sweater, pulling on her bottom lip. Chaewon gasps, grazing her tongue on Hyejoos lip. Hyejoo gladly allows Chaewon access, both of them fighting for dominance. Chaewon's hands roam over Hyejoos abs, tracing each defined line until she feels her skin twitch beneath her fingers. Chaewon smirks against Hyejoos lips, bringing herself impossibly closer to her. Hyejoo gasps when their hips come in contact, causing a low burn to start in her stomach.

"Chaewon", she whispers.

"I know, me too", Chaewon whispers back and continues to kiss Hyejoo deeply.

Chaewon knows that this isn't going to happen anytime soon. And she definitely knows this wouldn't even be how their first time would go. She likes Hyejoo a lot, she's not gonna screw up this soon.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehehehehehehehehe
> 
> twt @ kimlippington
> 
> ig @kimberlylippington


	7. VII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T/CW: suicidal thoughts, pretty sure that's the only thing but if it's not let me know

-

EDEN have been with Mobius for four days now. Hyunjin and Heejin were starting to get closer, learning more about each other as their training went on. They noticed Chaewon and Hyejoo getting closer too, they didn't really care about being touchy around everyone else, so it was kind of hard to ignore how cute they were. But Hyunjin and Heejin were taking it slow, or as slow as they could with the war going. Hyunjin could tell Jiwoo and Jungeun were getting a little antsy with their injuries, not being able to go out and train with the team was killing them and it was starting to show. Jiwoo lashed out at Jiyoon last night because she couldn't fly the heli for a drill, it took a lot of convincing from Jungeun but eventually, Jaden and Sooman let her fly. Everything was kind of tense after that, Jiwoo rarely let her anger get to her but when she did it was never pretty.

"Ladies, listen up", the room goes silent, "I hate to do this to you, but we've had a bit of an emergency situation thrown at us"

"Not again", Hyunjin says as she rubs her forehead.

"We sent a group of stealth operators into a facility last night, they were supposed to be back this morning but we haven't gotten any communications back yet. We'd like to keep this mission on the down-low, not a lot of people in Mobius know about it and it was a volunteer mission. We need anyone with stealth training to help us out with this, and we need to be able to trust you with the information about it"

Hyunjin was skeptical, and she was never skeptical about missions. She had a lot of stealth training, a lot. She had tons of medals for it, she even had Third Echelon and Special Ops training on her transcript. So, for her to feel skeptical about it was a big deal. She could feel eyes on her by now, everyone here knew that she was a highly decorated soldier, even for her age, she was perfect for this mission.

"I'll do it", Hyunjin says hesitantly.

"Dude are you sure?" Jiwoo whispers to her.

"I don't really have a choice, Jiwoo"

"I had stealth training in Atlas, I can help out too", Heejin says, standing with Hyunjin.

"You two can be out on the field, we need others for communications, data, all the technical work"

Jaehee, Soojin, and Yeojin all stand up, "We'll stay back here and help with tech"

"Anyone else?"

"How many more do you need?" Haseul asks.

"Honestly, we were good with just Hyunjin and Heejin but if anyone else wants to help then that'd be good"

"Is there any way we can help?" Jungeun asks for her and Jiwoo.

"If Jiwoo can get cleared in the next two days she can fly, if not you can always help out in the armory"

Hyunjin watches Jiwoo relax, she knows she loves working with the guns and armor when she's not flying.

"That's good then, you all can relax for the rest of the day. Tomorrow will be different though, those who are helping will need to be down here early and ready to get to work. Everyone else will be doing some hard training, I believe your time here has also been extended"

"Soojin is not gonna be happy about this", Monday whispers.

"It's war, Monday", Sooyoung snaps.

That's the other thing, Sooyoung has been totally out of character since the first day and it's starting to worry Hyunjin. She knows Jinsol would come to her if it was something super serious, but this seems completely different.

Jaden doesn't seem to have anything else to say so the girls start piling out of the conference room and towards their rooms.

"So, it's just you and me now", Heejin says, lacing her fingers with Hyunjin’s.

"I guess so", Hyunjin smiles and walks silently to their room.

Hyunjin is digging in her pocket for her key when she hears yelling coming from Sooyoung’s room. She looks at Heejin, who's furrowing her eyebrows and looking in the direction of their door.

"Sooyoung, stop!"

"No, I'm tired of feeling like this!"

"Ha Sooyoung, I'm serious"

"Oh, right because using my full name is gonna make me stop"

"God, Sooyoung, will you just listen to me?"

"No! I'm tired of listening, why do you even care anyway?"

"Why do I care? I fucking care about you because you're my girlfriend and we're supposed to be getting through this together, but you're just shutting me out!"

"God, you're only still with me because you can't leave! I'm not an idiot Jinsol! "

"I never said you were one!"

"Yeah, well you're treating me like one and I don't need you to get through this!"

Hyunjin’s jaw drops, "Shit"

"Fine, if that's how you feel I'll just be on my way", the door opens and Jinsol comes out with tears streaming down her face. Hyunjin and Heejin freeze and watch Jinsol slam the door closed, sniffling and running her hands over her face.

"Jinsol?" Hyunjin whispers, worried she'll scare her away if she says anything else.

"She obviously doesn't want me now so I'll just-", she cuts herself off and quickly walks to the stairwell, pushing through the doors and disappearing.

"I'm gonna talk to Sooyoung", Hyunjin says but Heejin stops her.

"Are you sure she wants to be talked to?"

"Even if she doesn't want to talk, I have to make sure she's not doing something stupid, something she was doing had to make that conversation happen"

"Just, don't get punched in the face okay?" Heejin smiles sadly.

Hyunjin nods and kisses Heejin, slowly pulling away and knocking on Sooyoung’s door.

-

"Go the fuck away", Sooyoung sneers, not caring who it is.

"It's Hyunjin"

"I don't care"

"Yeah, well I do", Hyunjin says as she opens the door.

"What the fuck Hyunjin?" Sooyoung yells.

"I'm not going to ignore the fact that my best friend is so obviously hurting. Now tell me what the hell is wrong", Hyunjin says as she sits down at the desk of the room.

Sooyoung is silent as she stares out of the window.

"Sooyoung-"

"No, I don't want to get lectured again okay? I don't want you to talk down on me or tell me I need to work things out"

"I'm not going to lecture you Soo-"

Sooyoung scoffs, "That's what Jinsol said"

"IM NOT JINSOL", Hyunjin yells, throwing Sooyoung off guard, "I'm your best friend! Your rock! A shoulder to fucking lean on when you need it! I'm not here to lecture you, I'm not here to talk down on you, I'm here to listen. There’s something seriously fucked up going on with you Sooyoung, you've never been like this and you've never talked to Jinsol the way you just did. So, I need you to tell me what's going on with my best friend before this becomes an even bigger issue"

Sooyoung is silent, having never seen Hyunjin yell like that. Not when she's not hurting about Yerim. She wants to tell Hyunjin everything that's been happening with her, but she feels like she'd be bothering Hyunjin with it. She felt like she was bothering Jinsol with it, that's why she doesn't want to tell her. And she knows she fucked up, it's only been a couple of minutes and she already misses her girlfriend like hell.

"I fucked up Hyunnie", she manages to choke out as sobs break through her body, "I fucked up so bad. I didn't mean to yell at her like that, I thought I knew what I was talking about, but I don't. I don't know what to do, I don't know how to talk about this, and it makes me so angry and I just-"

Hyunjin hushes her, pulling her into her arms and rubbing her back, "It's okay, you can work it out"

They stay like that for a while, Sooyoung just crying into Hyunjin while she tries to comfort her best friend. Sooyoung starts calming down a little bit once she doesn't have any more tears left, so she wipes her face and pulls away from Hyunjin.

"The day after we got here Jinsol took me up to the top of the building as a surprise. She just wanted me to see the view and it was great and romantic, but it just felt so normal. Like there wasn't anything going on outside the base and we weren't fighting for each and every day. So, I cried. I cried and ranted to her and she held me and told me it was going to be okay. Because that's what you do when your girlfriend is upset, but I'm just so tired of being told it's okay when it's not. And Jinsol just keeps saying the same thing over and over again and I guess I just got tired of it"

"And did you tell her that?"

"Yeah, but she didn't know what to say"

Hyunjin nods slowly, "You still haven't told me what's been actually bothering you"

Sooyoung sighs, standing from the bed and taking a deep breath, "This war, it's taking a toll on me. Jinsol and I were happy together when it started, I mean I had my days where I just didn't want to do anything, but she got me through it. We would be married by now if the war hadn't started. And I'm so tired of fighting and being scared of losing her. I don't know what I would do if I did lose her, and if she lost me, I don't even want to think about what she would be like"

"Sooyoung, this life is shit. It's all shit, but surviving is all we can do right now. I understand how you're feeling, okay? If something happened to Heejin I’d probably lose my mind-"

"You haven't been with her for nine years", Sooyoung snaps.

Hyunjin scoffs, standing and moving so she’s directly in front of Sooyoung, "And that makes you special?"

Sooyoung gulps, trying to regain her posture back, "Well, no but-"

"Listen to me very carefully Ha Sooyoung", she nods furiously, "I understand where your pain is coming from. When Yerim died I wanted nothing but to give up, but I got through it for her. This war is ending soon, and we're gonna be the cause of that"

"I don't want to fight Hyunjin, I don't want to be here anymore", Sooyoung whispers.

She watches something shift in Hyunjin and she becomes slightly terrified of the look in her eyes.

"So what, you're just gonna give up? You're gonna throw your life away because of some stupid war? You're gonna give up on Jinsol, on me, on everyone?"

Hyunjin voice starts getting louder, throwing Sooyoung even more off guard, "N-No that's not what I meant-"

"Then what did you mean? Huh? There's a roof on this building, there are guns in the armory, and I'm sure you could find some rope or some pills around here somewhere. I know exactly what you mean Sooyoung. And if you think I'm gonna let you think about something like that, you're wrong. You're my best friend, I'm not gonna lose you, not now and not ever. Together until the day we die. I'm sure you promised Jinsol the same thing. But we're ending this war, and what you're telling me right now is that you don't want to fight for the things you love anymore"

"Of course, I want to fight-"

"That's not what you're telling me right now", Hyunjin whispers.

Hyunjin is right. Sooyoung knows it. She doesn't want to fight or be here. But there's still a soldier left in Sooyoung, she can feel it. This isn't how she's supposed to be getting past her problems but she's starting to understand why everyone keeps saying its war. It's war because you have to fight, it's war because you have to survive, it's war because you're scared for every new day that comes and that's just how it is. But she has to fight, she has to fight for Jinsol, for Hyunjin, for everyone around her. But she has to fight for herself first, she has to fight for the fun, crazy, loud Sooyoung she was before she stopped caring.

"Go get your girl back Sooyoung", Hyunjin says firmly, turning on her heels and leaving the room.

One last tear rolls down Sooyoung’s cheek before she knows what she has to do.

-

"That is so not how you handle a suicidal situation Hyunjin!"

"It's how you handle it with Sooyoung though! She's tough, it's taken seven years for it all to catch up to her. I've seen soldiers give up a month into training because it's too much. Both of us were just like them when we first started out, but we're tough and we got through it. Sooyoung’s a natural-born soldier, she doesn't give up easily on the things she loves and cares about. I'm keeping a close eye on her, and if she does try anything, she's gonna have to get some actual help"

Heejin sighs, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion, "Well at least you got her to admit she doesn't actually want to give up"

Hyunjin sighs also, falling on her back next to Heejin, "She's been my best friend for eight years, I can see past all the walls she's built up"

"Hopefully she doesn't actually try anything, I'd miss her", Heejin whispers, cuddling up next to Hyunjin.

Hyunjin smirks, "Me too, Heekie"

"NO"

Hyunjin just laughs, pulling Heejin closer to her and finally closing her eyes.

-

Sooyoung quietly opens the doors to the roof, her eyes finding Jinsol leaning against the edge of the banister. She smiles sadly to herself, seeing Jinsol’s slumped posture compared to her usual high and mighty atmosphere. She hates to be the cause of it, the last thing she wanted to do was hurt Jinsol but that didn't seem to work.

She walks over to the edge, making sure to put distance between them. She knows Jinsol can see her but stays silent as she tries to find the right words.

"I'm sorry", she says finally, watching Jinsol stiffen next to her, "I didn't mean what I said"

Jinsol scoffs, "Sure"

"Okay, I did mean it, it just came out wrong", Sooyoung takes a deep breath to control herself, "I meant it when I said I don't want to be treated like a child. I was just tired of being told that it's okay and that it's going to be okay when you and I both know that's not the case"

Jinsol hangs her head, "I know, I'm sorry-"

"No, I'm not done", Sooyoung states firmly, facing Jinsol and squaring her shoulders, "I'm a soldier, I fight for the things I love. And I love you, more than anything in this world. You're the one who was there for me when I got injured dancing, you were the one who got me through the beginning of the war, you were the one who got me through all the hard times after I finally started fighting. I don't like this situation, nobody does, and it's taken seven years for it all to come crashing down on my shoulders. I know I couldn't just tell you to tell me it's not okay, you're my girlfriend and you usually do the opposite. But I needed help coming to terms with how shitty this war actually is. Hyunjin told me that we fight for the things we love and that's why I'm going to help end this war. I'm going to end it so we can finally get married, so we can get an apartment together and just be happy. We can watch the world grow and build itself again, I just want to be with you through it all"

Jinsol stares intensely at her, letting her continue, "I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm feeling suicidal right now. And I know that's the last thing we all need but it's how I feel, but I want to get through it. I need to know you'll always be there for me, cause it's gonna be a long fight"

Jinsol frowns, "Baby I'm here for you no matter what, you don't have to ask me to. And I'm sorry I wasn't understanding what you needed to be told, I just hate seeing you so upset"

Sooyoung laughs nervously, still not sure if she should get closer to Jinsol, "I'm sorry for getting angry and yelling, I thought I knew what I was doing, and I just ended up hurting you"

Jinsol chuckles, "We're a couple Sooyoung, we're gonna fight. No one’s perfect"

They stand there in awkward silence, both of them waiting for the other to say something.

"Can I kiss you?" Sooyoung blurts out, her tan skin doing a bad job of hiding her blush.

"Are we going back to our first year of dating now?"

Sooyoung rolls her eyes, pulling Jinsol closer to her and mumbling against her lips, "Shut up"

"Make me"

"Gladly", she presses their lips together softly, still not sure if Jinsol was joking.

Jinsol’s arms find their way around Sooyoung’s hips, pulling her closer.

"Makeup sex?" Sooyoung smirks against Jinsol’s lips.

"Who said I forgave you?"

Sooyoung’s heart sinks and she pulls away nervously, "I mean- I just thought. I don't know, you, I mean I-"

"I'm kidding, HaSoo. If anyone is supposed to apologize it should be me", Jinsol smiles dorkishly at Sooyoung.

"How about we both apologize and call it even?"

"Fine by me"

"Okay. On three"

"Seriously Sooyoung?"

"Hush", Sooyoung glares playfully, "Okay, one, two, three"

"I'm sorry", they say at the same time and smile.

"Good, now let's go, I've got some good ideas for making up to you"

"Sooyoung if you don't shut up, I'm gonna take you right here, on these stairs", Jinsol whines as Sooyoung pulls her down the stairs.

-

Early morning light filters into Hyunjin’s room, slowly waking her up. She feels a heavy weight on her hips and smiles when she sees Heejin asleep on top of her.

Hyunjin is still afraid of the feelings Heejin gives her. She hasn't felt safe and at home in forever, she doesn't want anything to happen to make it all go away again. She's only known Heejin for what, a week or so by now, but she's sure she’s going to fall in love with her. Maybe it's just because Hyunjin falls fast, and she definitely falls hard, but what she feels for Heejin is different than what she’s felt for anyone before.

She runs her hands lazily through her girlfriend’s hair, managing to wake her up. Heejin stirs a little, moving her head so she's looking directly at Hyunjin.

"Good morning sleepy head", Hyunjin smiles, softly rubbing her thumb over Heejin's cheek.

"Morning babe", Heejin rasps out and stretches her arms, crawling up Hyunjin’s body until their lips are inches apart.

"Oh, I could so get used to this", Hyunjin whispers as she leans forward, connecting their lips and sending fireworks through her body.

Their lips move in sync, already knowing each other. Hyunjin pulls on Heejin's lip a little, earning her a low moan. She smirks, slowly trailing her hands down Heejin's body. She rubs her hip bones with her thumbs, lightly dragging her nails over her stomach.

"Quit teasing me goddammit!"

Hyunjin laughs, moving her attention to Heejin's neck.

"And don't even think about leaving a mark", Heejin moves her neck so Hyunjin has more access, moving one of her hands to the back of Hyunjin’s neck.

She feels Heejin scratch lightly at her hairline and she hums at the feeling. Hyunjin quickly flips their positions, laughing when Heejin gasps. She hovers over Heejin, content with just looking into those eyes. Heejin starts playing with her hair more, both of them just looking and taking each other in.

"I'm so glad I get to call you my girlfriend in this shithole world", Heejin whispers, lightly tracing Hyunjin’s jawline.

"Me too", Hyunjin plants one last kiss on Heejin's lip before rolling off the bed and stretching.

"Nooo", Heejin whines and reaches out for Hyunjin.

"Come on, Heej, we have a world to save", Hyunjin surprised herself with the nickname but

shakes it off when Heejin smiles at her.

"Fine, but only because I have a super cute girlfriend to save it with"

"Sap"

"Dork"

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twt @kimlippington
> 
> ig @kimberlylippington


	8. VIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and so the plot ~thickens~

-

Jaden takes the group out of the building and down a long walkway when everyone finally shows up. Hyunjin watches all the large buildings pass by her as the walkway starts to slant down. She can see large double doors built into the concrete of the walkway, going even farther down into the ground. When they walk through the doors Hyunjin’s breath is taken away. The room behind the doors is large and circular, stretching up at least five stories. In the middle of the room is three stories of computers and workstations, illuminating the room a deep blue. Large glass structures circle the stations, creating a hall that goes around the entire circle.

The group follows Jaden to the right of the circle until they're on the other side, going through another set of double doors and down a long concrete hall. It's dimly lit, so Hyunjin can't see the large vault at the end of the hall or the guard next to it.

Jaden starts whispering to the guard, so Hyunjin takes the chance to talk to Heejin.

"This place is pretty impressive right?"

"Yeah, I didn't think we'd have the materials to do something like those glass things"

"You should see the command center in EDEN", Hyunjin smiles.

"I guess you'll have to show me then", Heejin whispers and smirks.

"Oh my god, ew", Jiwoo groans causing Hyunjin to laugh.

"This way ladies", Jaden calls out and the group starts moving again.

The large vault opens with a hiss and they walk through, Hyunjin's breath leaving her body again.

"So, this is the main command center for special operations", Jaden explains as the group stops.

The ceiling is even higher than the other room, a large stone structure takes up the back wall with the Sentinel emblem near the top. Blue lights glow behind it, enhancing the design of carvings on the stone. The room kind of reminds Hyunjin of the dining hall in Harry Potter, the stone replacing the windows and computers with workers walking around take up the open space in front of the structure. Two sets of stairs are placed on the left and right walls, going up to a second story with what looks like data caches and shelves. Underneath the second story walls are four black doors with small windows at the top, dim light streaming through them.

Hyunjin turns to Heejin, her heartbeat picking up at the sight. The blue from the stone is glowing onto Heejin, turning the brown in her eyes even darker and contouring her face in all the right places. Her mouth is slightly open, gaping in awe at the room in front of her.

Heejin turns her head to Hyunjin, smiling when she catches the soldier staring at her. It sends butterflies through Hyunjin's stomach.

"You all will be in our recon room, anything you need for this mission will be in there but if you need anything else just ask anyone out here", Jaden explains as he leads the group to the right side of the room, taking them through the second door from the entrance. The room is decently sized, a large table taking up most of the space and a large screen taking up most of the wall. The group spreads around the table, Jaden and Hyunjin taking the opposite heads.

Jaden taps the corner of the table, causing the touch screen to illuminate and project into the air above the table. Hyunjin laughs when she watches Heejin's reaction, her eyes blowing wide.

"Alright so, there were four field soldiers who went in. We had communications set up a couple of miles out from the facility, they went out before the field did. We don't know anything about the situation so we can't really help you there. All the info you need are in these files", Jaden taps on her side of the screen until the projection shows maps and streaming data, "Hyunjin will be controlling the field, Jungeun will be controlling the tech. Sooman and I will be in the main hall if you need us"

-

Hyunjin is silent as she watches the data roll past the screen. She leans back into her chair, going over the scenarios in her head.

The facility was set up on the outskirts of a desert, it was a large ten-story building with extensions on the north and west side. The entire thing was surrounded by a large, electric fence, there was no way anyone could get in without some kind of underground tunnel being there.

The communications were set up a couple of miles east in a tiny forest, they were set up in a military van and covered it with tarp and shrub. They had all of their data blocking and stealth firewalls up, there was no way anyone could have found them without physically taking the tarp off and seeing them.

And then there were the field men. Three women and one man, all of them top of the class military agents. They were almost as decorated as Hyunjin, there was no way they could've just slipped up.

The thing that threw Hyunjin off the most was the actual mission. Atlas was holding six Sentinels soldiers, all of which were new to the program. Two of them were from 1/3, three were from Mobius, and one was from OEC.

Nothing seemed off about them, besides the fact that they were new. But the field and tech were experienced veterans, unless Atlas knew about the mission it should have gone perfectly.

None of it made sense to Hyunjin, not the location, not the mission, not the team, none of it. It was unsettling.

-

"Hyunjin?"

Silence.

"Hyunjin? Dude come on"

"What is she even thinking about?"

"Will you two hush? She's going over the case in her head, just leave her alone for a while, she'll figure it out"

-

"Jiwoo", Hyunjin says, her voice startling everyone awake.

"I'm up!" Jiwoo yells, rubbing her eyes and trying to focus on Hyunjin.

Hyunjin rolls her eyes, focusing back on her data, "What can you tell me about the facility?"

Jiwoo taps a little on the screen, pulling up a large file with hundreds of attachments, "Uh, it was used for a lot of different reasons. The desert was used for military training, some floors were used for scientific experiments, some was used for government facilitation, war prisoners, everything really"

"Tell me about the captured soldiers"

"There's not much about them, they'd only been in the Sentinel program for a month. They didn't have any back story, said they were civilian before and just getting by since they left the military"

"Perfect targets", Heejin states.

"Do we know anything about their labs and experiments?"

"Just give me one second", Jiwoo mumbles as her hands fly across the screen, " _Oh_ "

"What?"

"That, that is not good", Jiwoo says, backing away from the screen so Hyunjin can see.

"What are you-", Hyunjin cuts herself off as she looks at the screen.

Her stomach drops as she grazes over the screen. Hundreds of photos of tortured test subjects fill the screen. She scrolls through the photos, seeing torn bodies, decapitated soldiers that don't even look human, hundreds of injection photos, and their results. The pictures show soldiers in cells, being held down onto tables by straps and fighting to get out of the glass. There's also a video attachment, Hyunjin hesitantly taps on it and puts it on the big screen.

"Holy shit"

It was obviously filmed by one of the scientists, a soldier is behind the glass, but their skin is rotten and they're pounding against the glass senselessly. Hyunjin can't even tell if it was a man or a woman, an uneasy feeling settles in her stomach as she continues watching the video.

A door inside the cell opens and another prisoner is thrown in, the thing pounding on the glass stops and turns its attention to the prisoner. The prisoner starts screaming as the thing lunges at it, ripping out its throat and wailing loudly. Hyunjin flinches at the sight, feeling Heejin standing next to her.

The camera is set down on a table and a scientist in protective gear comes into view.

"Atlas presents to you, the Exo Zombie Soldier!"

-

"Did you not read the files? Zombies, Jaden! You can't just ignore that", Jiwoo yells across the conference table.

"Of course, we read them, we just needed you to put all the pieces together"

"Put the pieces-", Jiwoo gives Jaden an incredulous look, "There are zombies running around America during a war and you didn't tell us? How long have you known about this situation?"

"We knew before we sent our men in, we sent them so they could stop the operations but we're guessing the zombies got to them first"

"Uh, yeah! No shit! Zombies weren't here before the war started and you expect soldiers to know how to handle it?"

Jiwoo is starting to get angry so Hyunjin puts a hand on her shoulder, turning to Jaden, "Please tell me they knew about it"

"They did, it was a volunteer mission"

Hyunjin sighs, running a hand through her hair. She had to tell everyone else, this wasn't the kind of thing you don't tell everyone. They deserved to know, especially since it's made the war ten times as harder now.

"Hyunjin, no", Jungeun says to the look on Hyunjin’s face.

"They have to know, they can't just keep training and fighting without knowing that there are _zombies_ out there", Hyunjin snaps.

"We don't even know if they got the zombie to survive, we need to come up with a plan and attack first before we tell anyone anything"

Hyunjin shakes her head and breathes out heavily, turning to Jaden, "How long do we have?"

"Four days"

-

"This is impossible, utterly impossible"

"That's what we all said when the war started in the first place"

"No, I mean what Atlas did", Heejin explains, pulling up files from the stream, "There is no way in hell they could've gotten the materials to do this. I mean they have all of their calculations and data here. These chemicals, they didn't even exist before this started. I know there were diseases that had zombie-like effects on the brain but this, this isn't right"

"Shit, you're right", Soojin says suddenly. Heejin hadn't heard any of the younger girls talk until now.

"Heejin, do you remember when we were with Atlas and they did that experiment-", Yeojin starts but Heejin cuts her off at the memory.

"No, there's no way that could be connected to this"

"Just think about it, they took blood samples and countless of physical tests. They took soldiers into labs and never came out"

"It could've been testing for something else"

"It would be impossible anyway, the logs in this data only date back to a couple of months ago", Jaehee states.

"They created a fucking war zombie in less than a year", Jiwoo whispers and slumps in her chair.

"Okay, enough!" Hyunjin’s voice startles Heejin, silencing the room.

"I understand that this seems impossible and ridiculous but it's real and it's happening. As of now, we're done reviewing the labs and all the data. We start planning our attack now, and we start planning how we're gonna wipe Atlas off of the face of this planet"

Everyone is silent, most of them not used to Hyunjin taking control. Heejin definitely wasn't used to it yet, Hyunjin wasn't the slightest of angry when they first met and Heejin had a gun to her face.

"You got it, Cap", Jungeun says hesitantly, grabbing Jiwoo's hand and pulling her to the other side of the table.

They all split up into their respective teams, Hyunjin separating herself from the group to think. She keeps scrolling through the data, every single file makes her want to throw up. The things Atlas did were horrible, she didn't want to think about how it felt to be in one of the prisoner’s positions.

"Hyun?" Heejin's voice and hand on her lower back pulls her away from her searching.

"Yeah?"

"Jungeun wants to know if we should be out training, she said she can handle all the tactical things and meet up later to agree on a plan", she whispers softly, she’s grateful she understands her stress.

"Yeah, sure, just let me save some stuff really quick"

Hyunjin moves the files she was looking at into a folder and exits out of everything, standing up and stretching her arms.

She sends Jungeun a look, somewhat apologetic but she's sure it didn't come out like that. Heejin pulls her out of the room, sliding her hand into Hyunjin's. They walk into the large room, sending a wave to Jaden and Sooman and then walking to the vault. Hyunjin drags behind Heejin, tired from working and all the information she's been told today.

She still can't believe that zombies are an actual threat now. Never in a million years would she have thought about it, it was always just some fictional thing before the war. Then again, she thought a lot of things couldn't happen before the war. She never thought she was going to lose Yerim, she never thought Kyungwon would disappear, or that she'd meet Heejin. But things happen for a reason.

Heejin and Hyunjin walk hand in hand quietly down the hall, noticing the guard is gone now. Hyunjin sighs and moves her arm around Heejin's waist and pulls her closer, leaning her head against her shoulder as they walk. Heejin seems to notice that something is wrong, and she stops, facing Hyunjin.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know", Hyunjin says as she rubs her forehead.

"Hey, look at me", Heejin lifts her chin up with one finger, "This whole…zombie thing…is just a minor setback. Everything is gonna be okay and we're gonna figure it all out. In four days, we'll be saving the world from another massacre and it'll be one more step to ending the war. And after we end it, we can settle down and go live on the beach with everyone or something"

Hyunjin smiles, thankful that Heejin was in her life now, "I'm so glad I'm stubborn"

Heejin chuckles, pulling Hyunjin closer and kissing her slowly. Hyunjin sighs, realizes how much she already missed kissing Heejin. She wraps her arms around Heejin, enjoying being with her for now. She gets lost in the feeling of Heejin's lips, just thinking about it makes her knees feel like jelly.

"We'll get through this together. Just know I love-", Heejin stops abruptly, Hyunjin growing curious.

Her stomach churns at the thought that Heejin already loves her. It almost makes her nervous, she wasn't going to deny she felt something more than just a crush on Heejin, but love? It was an option- no, it was the biggest probability of how she felt but she didn't want to love Heejin with this stupid war threatening to tear them apart somehow.

"Just know I love being here with you and if everything works out, I'll love it even more", Heejin smiles sadly and Hyunjin smiles back, still contemplating if that's what she was actually gonna say.

She plants a lingering kiss on Heejin's lips, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the tunnel and into the computer room.

-

So Heejin totally almost said she loves Hyunjin. She didn't even mean to almost say it, it felt natural to slip off her tongue. She knew Hyunjin was suspicious, the look on her face proved it.

They've only been together a couple of days and Heejin definitely didn't want to rush anything onto Hyunjin. But God did she want to tell her how much she means to her, and she wanted to show her too, but she knows her boundaries.

And this mission was just around the corner, a super dangerous one what with how much Hyunjin was stressing. She already knows Hyunjin isn't one to stress or get upset, hell she didn't even flinch when Heejin held a gun to her face. Or maybe that was just experience. Whatever it was, Heejin knew that this mission was a big one and they were eliminating a huge threat to the war. Who the hell even thinks about creating zombie soldiers? Are they asking for a death threat? Heejin just sighs heavily, marching up the stairs after Hyunjin.

"Hey, can you tell Jungeun to just go ahead and take a break, I'm tired and need a quick nap and I'd feel really bad if we got to sleep while they worked", Hyunjin says as she unlocks the door to the room.

"Yeah sure", Heejin pulls out the phone Sentinel gave her when she was put in the program

and texts Jungeun.

Her reply is almost instant, "She said the younger ones wanted to stay and keep working while she and Jiwoo went to the pit, whatever that is"

Heejin hears Hyunjin laugh abruptly, "The pit is just a big amphitheater that people go to chill out in. There's a stage there, Jiwoo is probably dying to get her hands on an amp or something"

Heejin raises and eyebrows, "Don't you mean her hands on a microphone?"

"Oh no, Jiwoo was a technician for OEC back then. She worked with Jinsol, that's kind of how we're all connected besides me and Sooyoung"

Heejin lays in the bed with Hyunjin, resting her head on her shoulder, "How did you and Sooyoung meet?"

"We knew each other a year before the war. We taught at her dance studio and met at a dance meet, we both got kind of injured and started talking while the trainers were patching us back up. We actually lived together a couple of months before she met Jinsol, it was all pretty crazy back then", Heejin feels Hyunjin smile as she talks, Heejin is glad Hyunjin is opening up a little.

She contemplates asking about Yerim and Kyungwon, but it's a pretty heavy question and she doesn't want to upset Hyunjin even more. Besides, she can already feel her breathing evening out now.

"When do you wanna wake back up?" Heejin asks softly, trying not to wake Hyunjin back up.

"When someone comes pounding at the door", Hyunjin mumbles, wrapping both of her arms around Heejin and pulling her closer.

Heejin just smiles, gladly moving closer to Hyunjin and pressing a light kiss to part of her exposed shoulder. Hyunjin smiles against her forehead, she feels her kiss it softly. She smiles even bigger, sighing contently and closing her eyes.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twt @kimlippington
> 
> ig @ kimberlylippington


	9. VIIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: graphic violence 
> 
> kind of a dumb chapter, the more I re-read all of these the more I hate them lolololol

-

"Jiwoo come on, get your dumb gloves on"

She gasps dramatically, pretending to be offended, "Did you just call my tech gloves dumb?"

"Not this again", Jungeun groans.

"Honestly babe, the technician is one of the most important positions on the team. If there weren't technicians, the shows would just be boring"

"I can't believe you're still telling me this"

"Well, if you didn't call my gloves dumb, I wouldn't have to explain it to you", Jiwoo says, stepping closer to Jungeun and lowering her voice.

"Hmm, well maybe if you weren't such a slowpoke I wouldn't have to complain", Jungeun lowers her voice also, turning her attention to Jiwoo's lips.

Jiwoo laughs, pressing a loving kiss to Jungeun's lips and humming contently, "Alright Prince Lip, let's do this"

Jungeun smiles happily at Jiwoo, snatching the microphone playfully from her and stepping away from the amps. Jiwoo steps up to the soundboard, rubbing her gloves together before nodding to Jungeun. Jungeun sets the microphone on the stand, taking a deep breath before letting herself release a few soft notes. As Jiwoo fiddles with the sound a bit, Jungeun gets a little more confident and sings louder. Suddenly, though, her voice is morphed into sounding like a chipmunk, and she steps away with a screech in Jiwoo’s direction.

"Too easy"

"Quit messing around with me, Kim Jiwoo, you know I’ll throw hands!"

Jungeun sticks her tongue out at Jiwoo, trotting back to the mic stand and placing her hands on her hips. She trails her gaze over the amphitheater, smiling as she sees the pink tint in the sky and the sounds of the base in the back of her head. She hasn't felt this content in a while, when she got locked in that closet with Jiwoo she thought everything was over. She hadn't ever bled so much or cried so much. She thought she had lost Jiwoo when she got caught under those shelves, and if Chaewon hadn't gotten there earlier Jiwoo probably wouldn't have made it. Jungeun doesn't know what she'd do without Jiwoo, they'd been married for so long she's so used to having her every day. She hates it when they're separated by missions, she hates being in this war with her, but shit happens. She'd stand by Jiwoo no matter what happened, she couldn't explain her love for the girl to anyone, it was just so strong that even she had a hard time comprehending it. There were days she felt like she loved her so much that it was just an illusion, that she didn't actually love Jiwoo and she just didn't want to be alone in the world with a war going on.

But then she woke up in the morning to her beautiful voice, the morning light hitting her face perfectly and kissing her, everything about her was perfect and Jungeun couldn't ask for anyone better.

"Jungeun?"

Jiwoo's voice brings her back to reality, noticing the small smile on her face.

"What?"

"What are you thinking about?" She asks with the smile still plastered on her face.

"You", Jungeun says plainly before running into Jiwoo's arms and kissing her with everything she had. It threw Jiwoo off guard, she almost falls back but she still catches Jungeun, smiling as she kisses Jungeun with just as much love.

"I love you so much, Jiwooming", Jungeun whispers against her lips.

"I love you more", Jiwoo whispers back, pressing her lips against her wife's lips again.

She was kind of glad they were injured now.

-

"Hyunjin"

"No"

"Hyunjin get up"

"I don't want to"

"Haseul needs us at the field"

"I don't care where she needs us, I want to sleep"

"I promise if you get up, you'll be rewarded later"

Hyunjin jolts up at that, rubbing her eyes and standing up a little too quickly. Heejin laughs at her, grabbing her hand and pulling her out of the room.

"Wait, we need our gear"

"Haseul said she had some new gear for us, now hurry up so she doesn't get angry"

Hyunjin groans, dragging behind Heejin and pouting slightly. She was actually sleeping well, there weren't any nightmares bothering her, and she kind of felt refreshed. But of course, she wouldn't get that, she never really does.

Heejin takes her down the walkway to the command center but turns right at a break in the concrete. She's taken through a tight alleyway that opens up into a large warehouse-like building. The ground floor is fairly small and drops into a low dirt-covered ground with a large covered structure. It's dimly lit, the only light coming from the holes in the ceiling. There's skating tunnel on the sides of the ground floor but are made of concrete instead of wood and have lights on all four sides.

"What is this?"

"I don't know, Haseul just said meet her here"

"Hyunjin, Heejin!"

Haseul’s booming voice scared the duo, causing them to turn around. Sooman is with her, along with Minkyung and Jaden.

"Uh hey Caps, Sooman, Jaden", Hyunjin says and nods to each one of them.

"Hi Hyunjin", Sooman and Jaden wave, looking to Haseul expectantly.

"Right so, I don't doubt your skills Hyunjin, but Heejin we've never seen you on a stealth mission so we're gonna put you through a test course. It'll contain different kinds of stealth tactics, if you get confused or don't know what to do, just tell us. Don't be afraid to not know, we want you to be the best you can be"

"It'll be fun, don't worry", Hyunjin assures Heejin when she feels a little tense.

"We'll get you both geared up, just follow Sooman and Jaden"

Heejin and Hyunjin fall into step behind the group, following them back into the alleyway and into another one on the other side of the concrete. It's slightly larger, two metal doors are placed on either side a couple of yards into the alleyway.

Sooman opens the door on the right with a keypad, opening it for everyone and stepping inside last. The lights are off and Hyunjin can't really see anything, but when the lights do come on, she's blown away. There are two stealth suits hanging up behind thick glass, one glowing yellow and one glowing pink. There are two weapons racks on opposite sides of the room.

"When did this happen", Hyunjin gapes at the suits, her eyes trailing over the black latex. Both look the same, except the pink one looks slightly smaller.

"Both of these suits are equipped with top of the class stealth design. The boots have soundproof Exo Ability, the latex is designed so it doesn't make any rubbing sounds when you walk, and there's shoulder, elbow, knee, and back covers if you fall. There are hip and thigh holsters, plus a lock for your larger rifle on your back. We took the Exo Skeleton off of the arms and the legs so you can move around easier, and you can decide if you want a full head helmet"

Hyunjin had to give them credit, it was as simple as they could get with all the technology. The upper body part was mostly dry fit, only the gloves and part of the torso was latex. Hyunjin couldn't wait to get inside of it and test it out.

-

Heejin was surprised when she saw the stealth suits, not even Atlas had suits like it. It fit her perfectly, she could move everything without any restriction, and she was even quieter with the Exo Ability.

And Hyunjin looked good in hers. Like, really good. It fit her in all the right places, her arm and thigh muscles slightly popping out of the material. It made Heejin want to rip the suit off of her and touch her everywhere, but she couldn't exactly do that, so she was kind of just breathing a little heavy while Haseul told her what to do.

She had chosen to get a full head helmet, it was just simple matte paint with night lenses and long vertical slits for breathing.

"Alright Heejin, just so I know the night and thermal vision on your lenses work I need you to look at the lights as I call them out"

Heejin nods, wriggling her fingers in the leather gloves and looking at whichever light Haseul named off. The lenses switched between thermal, normal, and night vision each time she switched lights. She was going to have to ask how to change that when she needed it.

"Alright, so the helmet has a brain trigger that kind of reads your mind when you want to change visions. So, we're gonna darken the room more and see if it works"

Or not.

The room darkens even more and Heejin unconsciously thinks about needing it to be brighter and the night vision comes on. She flinches a little, she's never seen this kind of technology and it’s kind of intimidating to her. She could only imagine what other technology Sentinel has.

-

Hyunjin flies through the helmet process easily, deciding to just keep her field helmet so she could take it off and on easily. She watches Heejin do her helmet test, she laughs when Heejin flinches at the brain trigger technology. She expected her to, Atlas probably doesn't have much of a stealth program.

"Are you ready to start the field test?" Minkyung asks her. She pushes her helmet button, and the face mask shifts over and locks into place, letting Minkyung know she was ready.

"You may begin"

Hyunjin’s brain switches to her battle mode and she sprints up the slant on the pipe, easily grabbing onto the ledge and hoisting herself up. She doesn't have to think about the drop to the dirt level, it just comes naturally to her. But it's lower than she thinks so she rolls onto her shoulder quickly and jumps back up, sprinting silently through a tight space between the structure. There's a dead-end in front of her, she already knows she's going to have to climb up to the next level, so she jumps up on the wall, kicking off of it and onto the opposite one until she's wedged between the two walls. She grabs onto the ledge of the next level and crawls up, quickly getting back up and checking the new area. There's a torn tarp hanging loosely on beams, separating herself from the other side of the area.

She switches to thermal vision and sees that there are two guards on the other side of the tarp, both of them with their backs to her. She smirks behind her mask, swiftly running through the tarp and taking down the first guard with a non-lethal tactic. When she grabs the first one the second notices and she throws the first one under her arm, kicking her legs up and wrapping her feet around the other guard’s throat. She chokes him until he's unconscious but not dead and pops back up, jumping over the ledge in front of her and grabbing onto a crack in the wall in front of her. She travels down the wall like that, finding herself on a makeshift AC unit. She knows she's gonna have to shimmy around the corner and quickly steps on the ledge. She moves around the corner, jumping into the window and landing in a crouch. The room is pitch black, so she switches to night vision, seeing a door on the other side of the room and beams near the ceiling.

She's about to walk towards the door but it opens suddenly, and a bright light comes pouring. If she didn't have fast reflexes to jump up onto the beams she would've gotten caught. She waits until the guard is right underneath her to shift down, her legs locked together so she's hanging on the beams still. She lifts the guard up slightly, putting pressure on his neck until he goes limp, and drops him along with herself. She rolls back up and walks through the door, met with another wall and a corner. She narrows her eyes and listens carefully, noticing the mechanical sound of a moving camera after a while.

"For the love of God", she says to herself and pulls out her pistol, leaning her back against the wall and peaking around the corner. There's a door, and above it is a slowly moving camera. It's not protected, thank god, so she quickly shoots out the lights and moves around the corner. When she reaches the door, she jumps up and grabs the camera, ripping it off the wall and crumbling it.

"Unnecessary Hyunjin", Haseul’s voice cracks through her earpiece.

"Worth it", she says back, smirking and opening the door quietly.

-

Heejin had gotten through the climbing and the dropping perfectly fine, but when she got to the tarp, she had no idea what to do and just ran through them. Fortunately for her she had quick reflexes and took the two guards down, but not without Haseul telling her what she should've done. She had hung her head for a second, but Minkyung reassured her that they'd work on it and she'd be an expert in no time.

Now she was past the camera and in a small room that yelled loud at her. There were microphones hanging from the ceiling along with strategically placed chains. Broken glass was spread out on the floor, and the walls were definitely made with sound detecting material. Even the floor was made of metal grating, so she was sure it was gonna make some kind of noise.

But Heejin just smiled, running off of the platform and stepping directly onto the glass, but she doesn't make a sound. She jumps onto the metal platform, brushing past the chains and microphones swiftly and sprinting into the wooden door.

"Holy shit, how did you just do that", Haseul says and Heejin laughs.

"I had to learn to escape a lot of rubble when I was with Atlas, taught myself all the right footing"

"Impressive. Get through this next area and you'll be done"

Heejin nods to herself, opening the wooden door and finding herself in another dark room. There's a large block in the center and a door to the left. She knows better now than to just walk towards it, so she flips to her thermal vision and moves the block, waiting for someone to walk through the door.

After a few silent moments, someone finally does and Heejin waits for them to get to the other door to attack. She's about to do a non-lethal on them, but they twist and duck from under her, forcing her hands behind her back and pulling her into a headlock. She internally panics for a second, but quickly grabs their arms and flings them over her shoulder, driving her knee to one side of their head and keeping their arms locked. They fight back almost instantly, kicking their back off the ground and wrapping their legs around Heejin's throat, and slamming her down onto the hard ground. The air leaves her lungs for a second and she gasps.

"Shit", she groans and pulls against her attackers’ legs, twisting her body so she can get a headlock on them too. Once she applies pressure, she feels them put some too, and there's no way she can get out of this unless they back off. She can feel herself losing strength and consciousness, and soon enough everything turns black.

-


	10. X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> filler chapter filler chapter filler chapter

-

"What the hell were you thinking? I could have seriously hurt her!"

"We know you wouldn't have, you never hurt anyone else during these tests"

"Yeah, because they don't fight back, and they sign up to get choked out!"

"We just wanted to see how you would react"

"By throwing my girlfriend and I into the same room to fight each other?"

Heejin stirs awake at the voice, instantly feeling pain shoot up her back. She gasps and opens her eyes, grabbing the attention of everyone else in the room. Hyunjin slides next to her, helping her sit up.

"That was you I was fighting?" Heejin asks.

"Yeah, I've gotta say you've got some good skills"

"Obviously not good enough", she mutters as she rubs the front of her neck.

"You did well Heejin, your little stunt in the sound room proved a lot", Jaden says.

"Complimenting her isn't gonna make us forget that you made us fight", Hyunjin snaps.

Heejin puts a hand on her knee, shaking her head when she looks at her. Hyunjin rolls her eyes but relaxes anyway, standing and pulling Heejin up with her.

"We'll be getting dinner if you need us", Hyunjin whispers coldly, pulling Heejin through the door and out of the training structure. She's silent as they walk through the alley, the low sun hitting Heejin in the face and instantly heating her up in all the black she has on.

"Do you wanna go back to the room and get changed?"

Heejin nods her head, needing to get out of this outfit. She also wanted to take a shower and sleep forever. Her back was killing her and it's a little hard to breathe right now. She did have to admit that Hyunjin was a good fighter, she hadn't expected for a fight back and she liked getting caught off guard for a second.

They walk silently up the stairs, neither one of them knowing what to say. Heejin knows Hyunjin wouldn't have even thought about fighting her if she knew it was Heejin, but she didn't know and Heejin can't blame her for fighting back. Heejin would have done the same thing.

-

"Well, we definitely pissed her off"

"She'll get over it, it’s just Hyunjin"

"Are you sure? Heejin is pretty important to her, almost as much as Yerim-"

"Minkyung"

"Right, sorry"

Haseul shakes her head and starts walking out of the training structure, Minkyung following closely behind her. Jaden and Sooman had left earlier, leaving the two captains to discuss what Hyunjin and Heejin had done. She was impressed with Heejin, she had never seen someone get through the sound room that quickly and efficiently, besides Hyunjin of course. She was gonna have to teach Heejin how to work with the guards, well, Minkyung was going to have to. Haseul was more concerned about Hyunjin and her shooting skills, it took her two hits to take out one of the lights when she can usually take two of them out with one bullet. She wasn't worried per se, she just wanted to get this mission over with. She had read all the files before Jaden took the team into the command center, and everything about it made her feel uneasy. Zombies didn't even seem like a possibility, it just didn't even sound right.

-

Hyunjin opens the door slowly, trudging into the room and starting to pull off her gear. She hears Heejin close the door and walk into the bathroom, probably taking a shower.

She feels horrible for hurting her, if she had known it was Heejin she would have yelled at Haseul sooner and there wouldn't be a giant bruise on Heejin's throat. She can't even believe she fell for it; she knows Heejin and how she feels by now. She should have known, but she didn't and that's what's pissing her off.

"Hyunjin can you come here for a sec?" Heejin groans loudly and calls out, Hyunjin quickly pulls the pants on her gear off until she's only in spandex and a sports bra.

She walks into the bathroom, flinching when she sees Heejin leaning on the counter. There's already a large bruise on her back and a couple dotting her shoulders, Hyunjin feels like she could throw up at any second.

"Can you help me out of this bra?"

Hyunjin's blood runs cold, "Uh sure"

She carefully runs her hands up Heejin's back, stretching the back of the material out as Heejin does the front. Heejin groans and Hyunjin panics, but she gives her a reassuring smile and pulls the bra off. Hyunjin is stunned for a second, she doesn't really know what to do besides stare at Heejin. All she thinks of is how beautiful Heejin is and how lucky she is to have her.

"My eyes are up her babe", Heejin whispers seductively, lifting Hyunjin’s chin and kissing her softly. Hyunjin sighs, moving her hands onto the counter and softly leaning against Heejin as her arms move around her neck. Heejin deepens the kiss, running her tongue along Hyunjin's lip and immediately gaining access. They fight for dominance, Hyunjin almost losing herself in the feel of Heejin's lips but a groan stops her.

"Shit I'm sorry did I hurt you?" Hyunjin pulls back and starts scanning Heejin's body for any other bruises.

Heejin laughs, lifting Hyunjin's chin again and smiling, "I'm fine, just feeling a little sore"

Hyunjin frowns with guilt, "I'm sorry, if I had known-"

"Hyunjin, stop. You didn't know, I didn't know, it was a lesson learned. I'll be fine"

"But I hurt you", Hyunjin chokes out, she doesn't even try to stop the tears that are coming now.

"Babe", Heejin frowns and pulls Hyunjin closer to her.

Hyunjin only cries harder, burying her face into Heejin's bare neck and wrapping her arms loosely around Heejin's waist. She feels like she has to be careful with Heejin now, she knows she's stronger and she knows she can really hurt her. But Heejin is an adult, she's a soldier and she's strong, Hyunjin shouldn't have to treat her like a newborn.

She cries for a little while, mostly from guilt but some of it is because of the stress that's been put on her. She feels bad for crying on Heejin, but she feels hand stroking through her hair anyway. She's nothing but grateful for Heejin, lord knows what her life would be like if Heejin wasn't in it. She's been thinking about that a lot lately, how messed up she and her life would be. Heejin was like her rock, she can't even believe how fast she fell for her.

"I can practically hear the gears running in your head, Hyun", Heejin tries to joke and manages to get a little laugh out of Hyunjin, "Alright come on, I think we both need a nice hot shower"

Hyunjin smiles at this, sniffling and letting Heejin pull her into the shower.

-

"I haven't run that hard since summer camp in 7th grade", Yeojin gasps out between heavy breaths.

"If you think that was bad, just wait until Haseul gets involved", Zoa breathes out next to her.

"Wonderful"

They had been running sprints and suicides since they got out of stretching, Yeojin wasn't prepared to be pushed this hard. She wasn't really prepared for anything but a light jog and a couple of sprints, but no, she was proven totally wrong. Jaden let them out a couple of minutes ago but Yeojin was still breathing pretty hard, having to walk up the steps from the Pit wasn't helping her exhaustion.

"Good work today ladies, I expect the same amount of energy tomorrow after lunch"

Yeojin and Zoa groan, trudging slowly through the last set of stairs and sighing when they see the downhill slope to the cafeteria.

"Do you think they made the Pit like this on purpose?"

Zoa laughs, "Oh trust me, they did"

Yeojin laughed with her, falling easily into conversation with the tall soldier. They've been like this ever since Yeojin joined security back at EDEN, Yeojin considered Zoa one of her closest friends now. Sure, she spoke to most of the younger girls, but she spent the most time with Zoa. She was glad Haseul had roomed them together, it probably would've been awkward with anyone else.

When they enter the cafeteria Yeojin starts looking around for Heejin and Hyejoo, finding them both at a table together in a corner. She smiles as she watches her big sisters interacting happily with their girlfriends. Yeojin thought it was pretty funny that Heejin managed to find a girlfriend during a war, but she was even more surprised that Hyejoo even liked girls. After knowing her for practically her whole life she thought she would've found out by now, Hyejoo was probably just really good at hiding it.

"I'm gonna go get us some seats before everyone starts piling in, can you get a tray for me?" Yeojin asks as she starts leaning towards Heejin's direction.

"Yeah sure, just wave when I get out of the line", Zoa walks off, leaving Yeojin to herself as she walks towards Heejin. When she gets to the table, she wraps her arms around Heejin but is pushed off after she yells out.

"Shit, I'm sorry, Heejin!" Yeojin yells, seeing the look of pain on Heejin's face.

"It's fine Yeojin", Heejin groans out as Hyunjin rubs her lower back.

"Are you sure? What happened?" Yeojin asks, upset that her big sister was hurt.

"Just something that went wrong during training", Heejin smiles up at Yeojin but she can tell she's hiding something.

Yeojin raises and eyebrows but sits down anyway, "Are you gonna be okay?"

Heejin laughs, slinging her arm over Yeojin’s shoulder and pulling her closer, "Yes you little monster, quit worrying so much"

Yeojin laughs and gently hugs Heejin back, doing her handshake with Hyejoo when she lets go.

"So, how's training going?" Heejin asks and everyone groans, "Okay, bad obviously"

"You should've made us run more, last time I did suicides was back before the war", Hyejoo groans as Chaewon laughs at her.

"It's not that bad, you'll be used to it by the team we leave", Yeojin fake gags at the heart eyes Chaewon is giving Hyejoo, causing Hyunjin and Heejin to laugh.

"When are we leaving by the way?" A voice causes Yeojin to jump, but she settles when she realizes it's just Zoa.

"Maybe another week", Hyunjin says a little distantly but Yeojin barely notices it.

But she does notice the look in Heejin's eyes. It's distant and sad, she can't think of anything that could've happened recently that would've made her upset. Unless she and Hyunjin were fighting already, which she doubted because they were still being a gross couple. She hoped it wasn't memories haunting her still, they'd catch her at the worst times and it almost cost them their lives a couple of times. But Yeojin couldn't blame her, she lost a lot of people, and Hansol, she couldn't think of how it felt to lose someone like that. It almost made her sick to the stomach to think about it. Losing Zoa would kill her, even losing Soojin and Jaehee would hurt. She forgot what it felt like to be hurt and in pain, and not just physically. It had only been Heejin, Vivi, and Hyejoo for so long, the thought of having other people scares her. Zoa scares her, Jihan scares her, they all scare her. She feels like she's too young to be worrying about these things but, as everyone says, it's war. She was thrown into it as a teenager, it's all she's really known, and she hates it. But there's really no other choice.

"Hey, are you okay?" Zoa’s voice pulls Yeojin out of her thoughts.

She smiles sadly and nods, "Yeah just thinking"

"Don't get too lost in your thoughts", Zoa jokes and pats Yeojin on her back.

All Yeojin can think of is how lost she actually is.

-

"Tell me again why we're doing this?" Heejin breathes between her steps.

"You gotta be a little in shape, Heekie", Hyunjin breathes out next to her, picking up her pace a little.

They've run at least three miles by now and Heejin was exhausted, it was getting hard to take more steps and Hyunjin increasing her speed wasn't helping.

"Hyunjin can we just-", Heejin cuts herself off, stopping and bending over to catch her breath.

She hears Hyunjin stop, then sees her shoes a couple of feet away so she decides to look up. And it was a bad decision, really, because Hyunjin is _hot_. There's a glistening sheet of sweat covering her, her chest heaving as she's looking off somewhere. She has her mouth open as she breathes and her jawline is popping a lot, Heejin's mouth waters at the sight. Lucky for Heejin they stopped in a secluded area of the base.

"Uh, Heejin?" Hyunjin turns her attention to Heejin and her eyebrow raises at the look she's giving her.

Heejin lunges forward, grabbing the back of her neck and slamming their lips together. Hyunjin yelps in surprise, but practically melts into Heejin when she feels her lips. The kiss is already deep and messy, and Heejin would keep kissing Hyunjin if her lungs didn't burn.

"Feeling a little out of breath?" Hyunjin smirks.

Heejin rolls her eyes, "At least it's for a better reason"

Hyunjin laughs that contagious laugh that Heejin loves so much and turns back around, walking back towards the main area of the base, "Come on slowpoke, let's get back before they have the meeting"

She starts walking off and Heejin just watches her with a smile on her face. She can't even believe she's with Hyunjin, it all feels too surreal for her. Hyunjin is perfect in every way and it scares her, she doesn't want to lose her. And as she's watching her walk away, she feels a flutter in her heart, so smiles wider.

"God, I love you"

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twt @ kimlippington
> 
> ig @ kimberlylippington


	11. XI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> boy did I forget about this chapter. if you ever think it's going to get better, then you're wrong. 
> 
> I have no idea how to C/TW this so I'll just say if medical conditions/things that make people faint are triggering then be careful with this chapter. 
> 
> also im not in any way shape or form a medical expert I just looked up symptoms/possibilities of the condition and ran with it so if its wrong, thats why

-

They have one more day left until they start the mission. Soojin is a mess of nerves. She's not even going into the field and she's more nervous than she's ever been. She feels like she made a mistake volunteering to help, she would've rather not known there were zombies out roaming in the middle of a desert. She went over all of the data, every single bit until she couldn't handle it. It only got worse the deeper she dug and going back into the special ops room was like reopening wounds. This mission hurt her, mentally and emotionally hurt her and she doesn't know if she can come back from it. She's been trying to soak it all in, she's been trying to soak the war in for the past three years, but she's had no luck. She still can't believe she was thrown into a situation like this, she can't even believe she's safe with Sentinel with everything she hears people in Mobius talk about. It's a completely different world outside of California. The world is broken and torn, and it just hurts Soojin even more.

"Hey, are you okay?" Jaehee's voice is an echo in her mind.

"Yeah, I'm fine", she easily lies.

"Hey, come on I know you better than that"

All she can do is shake her head and focus back on her work, "Just over thinking. I'll be fine, I promise"

-

"Hyejoo this really isn't the time for you to get handsy", Chaewon whines as she feels Hyejoos hands trail down her stomach.

"Oh, come on, they'll survive a couple of minutes without us", Hyejoo whispers into Chaewon's ear, kissing down her neck.

"Yes, they will", Chaewon uses whatever strength she has to gently push Hyejoo off, "And when they realize we're late we're gonna have to run more"

Hyejoo pouts but gets up anyway, lingering in the bathroom doorway. Chaewon watched her closely, noticing the tension in her shoulders and the look of distress on her girlfriend’s face.

"Hyejoo?"

She doesn't get a response for a couple of seconds, "Sorry what?"

She becomes worried and slides off the bed, "What are you thinking about?"

"Uh", Hyejoo rubs the back of her neck and doesn't look directly at Chaewon, "It's nothing, really"

"You're a horrid liar", she smirks and places a hand on Hyejoos neck, "What's wrong?"

She waits for a response, but she doesn't get one. All she gets is Hyejoos body going limp and her eyes rolling back into her head. It happens so quickly she doesn't even realize it's happened until a couple of seconds later.

"Shit, Hyejoo", she practically screams and drops to the floor with her, laying her on her side and shaking her. Hyejoo doesn't wake up, so Chaewon quickly checks for a pulse and sighs when she finds one. She checks her eyes, finding her pupils perfectly fine.

"Goddammit, I hate you, you stupid giant", Chaewon groans as she scoops Hyejoo up in her arms, carrying her out of the door. She knew she should probably be panicking but she obviously needed to get her girlfriend some help.

She runs as fast as she can down the stairs and out of the building, yelling the second she sees Yeojin and Zoa. They come sprinting towards Chaewon.

"Oh my god, what happened?"

"I don't know! She was standing in the door and she looked worried, so I asked what was wrong and she just passed out"

"Oh no", Yeojin whispers and stops.

"What? Why oh no?"

Yeojin opens and closes her mouth a couple of times, "She has arrhythmia, it's a heart condition. She's been pushing herself too hard, she's gonna have to rest for a couple of days before she does anything again"

Chaewon grows infuriated, "And she didn't think to tell us this?"

"Okay wait, now is not the time to be angry Chaewon, we need to get to the infirmary right now", Zoa says quickly as Chaewon's face contorts to anger.

She feels an angry tear roll down her face, but she nods anyway and holds Hyejoo tighter, running behind Zoa to the infirmary. When they get there, she's crying freely and hesitates before setting Hyejoo down on one of the operation beds that she was led to. It's in a secluded room, only two other beds are there and they're both empty. She lays her girlfriend down carefully and steps back, doctors rushing to her side and attaching all kinds of things to her body. She feels an arm pull on her, and soon she's being led out of the room.

-

"Do you think she's gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, she'll be fine, she just needs a lot of rest. I've never seen her get that bad before"

Zoa nods slowly, leaning against the back of her chair, "How come she didn't tell anyone?"

"It hadn't happened for a while, we thought she got better and that it was nothing to worry about, but I guess it's still there", Yeojin explains after blowing air out of her mouth.

Zoa nods knowingly, remembering her injury a couple of years ago that she thought was healed but was only getting worse. She still laughs when she thinks about it, she was so stupid not to see the signs.

She shakes the memories off, glancing towards Chaewon, she's been silent since they pulled her out of the operation room.

"Do you think Chaewon will be okay?"

"I don't know, she seems to be taking this pretty hard"

"How are you taking it?"

"Hyejoos strong, she always has been. I know she'll be fine"

-

Heejin and Vivi show up an hour later, both came sprinting in the doors with the scariest looks of determination that Chaewon has ever seen.

"Where is she?"

"Still in the operating room", Yeojin draws out.

"Still? How long has she been in there?"

Yeojin sarcastically looks at the nonexistent watch on her wrist, "Bout an hour and thirty minutes"

"Yeojin, she's never-"

"I know"

Chaewon can see the distress on Heejin and Vivi's faces. She knows she doesn't really have a right to be as upset as them but Hyejoo means so much to her and she's just so pissed off that Hyejoo didn’t tell her. She's even more pissed off that someone else didn't even try to tell her, all of this could've been avoided and Chaewon wouldn't be so angry.

"Are you all here for Hyejoo?" A voice startles Chaewon, but she perks up at the sound of her girlfriend’s name.

"Yes, why?" Heejin asks as she stands up.

"I'm Doctor Park Jihyo, the lead surgeon. I was hoping I could talk to one of you about Hyejoo", she says, taking the glasses off of her face.

"We're all here for her, you can tell all of us", Chaewon watches Vivi take control of the situation, stepping to the front of the group.

The surgeon sighs, putting her clipboard under her arm, "We've stabilized her for now, but not without a lot of complications. We had to do some surgery and trust me she's fine now and she's going to need a lot of rest but there was a lot going on in her body that shouldn't have been. She pushed herself way past the limit she should've been going, and if I'm being honest, she should have dealt with this problem years ago. I'm surprised she even made it this far. She had a lot of clotting near her heart and if you hadn't gotten here as quick as you did her heart would have stopped"

Chaewon lets a sob escape her throat knowing that she almost lost Hyejoo, she feels Heejin wrap an arm around her as the surgeon continues talking to the group.

-

Vivi almost couldn't believe any of the words coming out of the doctor’s mouth. Hyejoo was never this bad before, the most she would do was lose consciousness for a couple of minutes, and then she'd be right back on her feet. They didn't even know she had arrhythmia until after the war started, and everything was a mess back then, so they just let it slip by. Vivi knows they shouldn't have just brushed it off, Hyejoo could have died an hour ago because of their carelessness.

"When can we see her?" She asks.

"She's asleep right now, she probably will be for a while, but I'll allow one person to go and see her. The rest of you can look through the window or something, I just don't want a lot of clutter if something suddenly happens. I hope you can understand that"

Vivi nods understandingly and turns to the group behind her. Zoa is really the only one who doesn't look as stressed, Yeojin and Heejin have cold and distant looks, and Chaewon is just standing there with an empty face.

"Chaewon should go", Vivi says without really looking at anyone.

"No, you guys are her family", Chaewon says as she shakes her head.

"Yeah, but you're her girlfriend. I don't even remember Hyejoo _liking_ anyone before the war", Yeojin backs Vivi up, Heejin nodding in agreement.

Vivi pulls Chaewon by the hand down the hall, stopping in front of the door to Hyejoos room, "We'll be right outside, and if it gets too much we'll be here"

"Thanks", Chaewon smiles sadly, turning to the door and taking a deep breath. Heejin and Yeojin stand behind Vivi near the window and watch the door close, Chaewon trudging over to the seat next to the bed and sitting down. A smile small stretches across Vivi's face as she watches Chaewon's lips start moving.

-

"Wow. I can't believe I almost lost you. I don't know if you heard the doctors or not, but you had some really bad blood clotting, he said if I hadn't gotten here as fast that you wouldn't have made it…And I’d be alone again"

She feels ridiculous, Hyejoo isn't in some kind of deadly coma, she could wake up any second and she'd be fine.

"God, I wish you would've told me about this. I wish someone would have told me. I'm worried sick about you right now. I know you'll be fine and up on your feet in a couple of days, but I could've lost you", Chaewon chokes out, lightly grabbing Hyejoo's limp hand.

"We can talk more when you wake up. Just get some rest for me, I'll be right here when you wake up"

She leans forward, kissing her forehead lightly. She smiles sadly at Hyejoos sleeping form, a content expression on her face.

-

"How are you doing with the whole Hyejoo thing?"

"I don't know, I'm worried. She's never been that bad before"

"I'm sure she'll be fine. She's strong"

"Yeah, I know"

Heejin and Hyunjin were laying on the grass stairs of the Pit, they've been here for a couple of hours just chilling out before they leave later on in the night. They made a plan to scout the outer parts of the base so they knew what they were working with, but they had to do it at night so they wouldn't get caught. Hyunjin was kind of nervous, she hadn't been out on a serious mission in a while.

"Are you scared?"

Hyunjin closes her eyes, "Yeah"

"Hey", Heejin sits up and pulls Hyunjin up with her, taking both of Hyunjin’s hands in her own, "It's gonna be fine. It's just a scouting mission"

"We don't know what we're gonna find in that forest though", running into some kind of zombie soldier thing was Hyunjin’s biggest fear.

"We're soldiers Hyunjin, we'll make it. And if we do run into some certain doom, we'll get out of it together. You and me, remember?"

Hyunjin smiles and nods, leaning in to give Heejin a loving kiss. The sparks she gets from Heejin's kisses surprise her every time. So, she can't really help that it gets a little heated really fast, Heejin letting out a little groan that pulls her back to reality.

"As much as I love kissing you, we're in public"

Heejin groans, laying back down onto the grass and pulling Hyunjin’s head into her lap. They lay together, their hands intertwined in the grass as the world keeps spinning around them. Hyunjin eventually falls asleep, tired from everything happening. She needs rest for tonight anyway, she has to be 100% awake and energized for it.

-

_A beeping stirs Chaewon awake. It's a loud, annoying beep, and it's almost deafening. She slowly opens her eyes and sees she's still in the extra bed in Hyejoos operation room. Or what looks like the room, there's a mess of white lab coats running around, and the beeping is only getting louder. Chaewon's grogginess isn't wearing off easily and the world seems to be moving in slow motion. She looks to her right where doctors are circled around Hyejoo, yelling at each other and pulling tons of chords from different places of the room. She grows confused, their voices starting to pull her fully awake._

_"Doctor we have to stabilize her right now or there's no chance she'll survive"_

_"Get me the shock therapy, none of the stimulants are working"_

_"Someone gets the head director down here and fast"_

_"Sir we're losing her!"_

_Everything hits her at once, the hazardous beeping of Hyejoos heartbeat monitor, the doctors screaming at each other and rushing around the room. She sees Hyejoo’s body on the bed, her chest heaving and eyes bloodshot as they roll into the back of her head. All of her veins seem to be popping out, Chaewon finally realizes what's actually happening._

_"What’s wrong with her?" She screams and some doctors look at her, but through the chaos not everyone hears her and they're concentrating on Hyejoo._

_"Ma'am you can't be in here", a tan woman walks carefully towards Chaewon and tries to pull her out, but she jumps back._

_"She's my girlfriend! What's happening?"_

_"Ma'am please, just come outside, everything will be fine"_

_"No, it is obviously not fine, tell me what's going on!"_

_She fights against the doctor as she's being pulled out of the room, gripping onto the wall as Hyejoo’s body comes into full view._

_And then she hears it._

_The monotone beep, the one that happens as Hyejoo’s body stills and the doctors still with her._

_Everything goes back to slow motion. The doctor releases her hold on Chaewon as she cries out, pushing doctors out of the way so she can be next to her girlfriend. Her eyes are open and empty, her mouth slightly open as life trickles out of her._

_"No! No, you can't leave me! Not now, please Hyejoo!"_

_She pounds on Hyejoos chest, hoping that somehow her heart will start back up and she'll get to hear that annoying beep again._

_But it's no use, Hyejoos body is limp and Chaewon sobs, her cries echoing loudly through the room._

_"I love you Hyejoo, I love you, please don't-", she slides down onto her knees, her forehead resting on Hyejoos still stomach._

_And just like that, she feels every piece of soul within her crumble away._

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> u can come yell at me here:
> 
> twt @kimlippington
> 
> ig @kimberlylippington


	12. XII

-

Hyunjin sits silently in the tree, not daring to move a muscle. Heejin is in the tree behind her, both of them have been watching silently for about an hour. It's been dark for a while, they left Mobius at 11, moving on the road for 3 hours until they ended up at the edge of the trees. They had to travel alone through the pitch-black forest until they came to the other side. They searched around the area, they couldn't find any evidence left from the tech teams van, everything was picked clean and Hyunjin’s gut was telling her this wasn't a good idea.

"What are we looking for exactly?" Heejin whispers to her.

"Anything out of the ordinary", Hyunjin keeps her eyes trained on the edge of the trees in front of her.

"These trees are kind of big"

Hyunjin chuckles lowly, turning her head to look at Heejin, "You're ridiculous"

"At least I have humor with zombies running around", Heejin shrugs, slowly standing on her branch and jumping onto Hyunjin's tree silently. She swings and climbs up the tree until she's sitting next to Hyunjin.

"This is boring", she pouts.

"Yeah, I know. If nothing happens in the next hour or so we can head back"

Heejin silently celebrates, leaning her head on Hyunjin's shoulder as they watch ahead.

Hyunjin can see the large building in the distance, the lights illuminating the dark sky. The fence stretches out a lot farther than she thought it would, and she can see barbed wire at the top. The building's extensions are dark, either the windows are covered, or they don't want any light getting in or out of them.

The moon slowly rises into the sky, stretching through the trees and giving Hyunjin some light to look in. There's a lot of sounds in the forest, she's surprised to hear owls and frogs croaking on the ground. She thought some kind of radiation or something like that would kill off animals in America, she guesses she thought wrong.

"Why do you think the building extensions are dark?" Hyunjin ponders out loud.

"Could be where they do the experiments. Or prison cells, Atlas are the kind of people to not let their prisoners see outside"

Hyunjin nods, seeing the possibilities. Atlas would be the kind of people to do that, she just doesn't understand why they have the mindset to though. Why create zombies? Why start a war? Why do so many harmful experiments with everything going on? She doesn't understand any of it, and it pisses her off.

-

Heejin concentrates on the crunching of their boots in the leaves, looking ahead at the endless forest. She didn't pay attention to how long it took to get to the other side, now she's just super bored and tired. It feels like they've been walking forever.

"How much farther do we have?"

"Only little farther, I'm sure the tree line is about to- _oh fuck_ "

Heejin stops and looks back at Hyunjin who's doubled over on the ground, holding her foot.

"Woah, what'd you hit?"

"I don't know", Hyunjin stands up slowly, pulling out her rifle and switching the light on.

She shines it on the ground, Heejin doing the same and they find a piece of metal laying on the ground.

"What is that?"

"I think it's part of the van", Hyunjin picks up the metal, turning it over.

Heejin reads the large white letters printed on the metal, "Sentinel"

-

Chaewon can feel the puff of her eyes as she turns in her bed. She hears another beeping in the room and she shuts her eyes even tighter, remembering everything. All she remembers is screaming she loves Hyejoo, that's all that's echoing through her head. And God did she mean it, she meant it with everything she had, and not getting to hear it back was breaking her heart even more.

"Chaewon", a familiar voice whispers in her ear.

"I don't want to", she mumbles and digs her head farther into whatever pillow she's using, it's hard and curved and she doesn't like it.

"Don't want to what?"

"Live without her", her throat tightens.

"Why?" The voice asks, it's just below a whisper.

"I love her too much", Chaewon answers truthfully in her drowsy state.

The voice chuckles, "Babe, wake up. It was just a dream"

Her eyes flutter open at those words, low light finding her. She groggily looks around, noticing she's still in the tan-colored operation room but she's not in the other bed. She lifts her head up and turns to the right, finding lively brown eyes staring back at her.

"Hyejoo?" She's confused, mostly because those amazing eyes were filled with death when she was awake. And the monitor next to her was making that annoying death screech instead of the now steady beat that tells Chaewon her girlfriends’ heart is beating.

Hyejoos eyes squint as she smiles at Chaewon, "I love you too"

Chaewon's eyes explode wider, a giant smile finding its way onto her face, "Hyejoo!"

Chaewon flings her arms around Hyejoo, burying herself into her girlfriend who she swore was dead a couple of hours ago.

"I thought you were dead", she chokes out as happy tears flow down her face.

"It was just a dream Chaewon, just a dream"

Hyejoo's hands find their way into Chaewon's hair and it feels so real that she starts believing the words. She doesn't know if she could deal with the actual heartbreak and loneliness that came with Hyejoo actually being dead. She didn't want to remember or think about it.

And then those four words finally register in her head and she stops crying, "You love me?"

Hyejoo smiles up at Chaewon, trailing her fingers over Chaewon's jawline, "Yeah, I do"

-

"It’s gotta be around here somewhere"

"We've spent half an hour looking, it probably got blown away or something"

"From what wind?"

Heejin rolls her eyes, pushing past the shrubbery. Hyunjin had gone on some wild rant about finding the van somewhere near the plate, all Heejin could do was follow her around until she tires out. Which obviously wasn't going to be any time soon.

"Hyunjin come on, we can look tomorrow when it's light outside", Heejin whines as she feels fatigue start to settle on her.

"I'm telling you, it's around here. It couldn't have gone far"

"I thought it was back at the other tree line, not out here"

"They probably decided to move back"

"How did they even get a van in here? There's like no open space", Heejin says as she looks around.

There really was no space to get a van through, the trees were smushed together tighter than the width of Heejin's shoulders. There's no way they could've pulled a stunt like a van through the trees.

Heejin sighs, continuing through the forest. She just wants to stop walking and pull Hyunjin back to their truck, but the pale soldier keeps going. She's about to protest again but a glare to the right of her stops her.

"Get down!" She whispers yells and pulls Hyunjin down to the ground, switching to her thermal vision. She looks around but doesn't find anything.

"What the hell?" Hyunjin whisper yells back, throwing her hands up.

"I thought I saw something", Heejin explains slowly, raising off the ground and turning back to where she saw the glare.

She was sure it was the barrel of a gun or the reflection of metal armor. She pulls her pistol out, marching up the small slope towards the glare. It catches her again, causing her to flinch and freeze. She moves her head until it stops, looking in the direction and seeing a slightly darker portion of the forest a couple of yards away.

"What is that?" Hyunjin whispers next to her.

Heejin shrugs, stepping closer and seeing a black tarp hanging from the trees. She carefully pushes it back, raising her pistol as she does. When she rips it off the trees, she sees a big metal box about the size of a truck hidden between three trees, a small handle built into the right side. She notices a square in the center, slightly lighter than the rest of the box with four screws on each corner.

"I think we just found the van", Heejin states, reaching for the handle.

"Wait!" Hyunjin yells a little too loud, grabbing Heejin's arm.

"What?"

"We don't know what could be behind that door", she warns.

"Okay, get behind something and I'll open it?"

"No, let me do it", Hyunjin pulls Heejin out of the way, grabbing onto the handle and waiting until Heejin got behind something.

Heejin lifts her pistol at the door, nodding to Hyunjin. She counts down from three, swinging the door open haphazardly.

-

When Hyunjin swings open the door, she watches Heejin carefully, seeing her stand still and stare at the open door confuses her.

"Don't shoot!" She hears a voice from inside the box yell. She swears she knows that voice from somewhere, but it doesn’t sound right.

Hyunjin walks around the open door, peering slowly into the door. A bright light illuminates the room, allowing Hyunjin to see computer screens built into the walls, a bed put in the far corner, and a trap door bolted into the floor. Her eyes trail to the black-haired girl standing in the doorway, her hands above her head and a fearful expression on her face.

Hyunjin's stomach drops at that face, and lord did she wish she hadn't been so relentless in finding the van.

"Hyunjin?"

Her throat tightens, "Kyungwon?"

-

"Hey, Soojin, can you come look at this really quick?"

"Sure, what's up?"

Jaehee taps on her screen a little, pulling up the files she had just found. She spent a full hour doing some serious digging, and what she found wasn't pretty at all. Countless caches of data, all building a case against Mobius. The volunteers who went on the mission had been secretly working together, finding and storing data against Mobius. She found them by clicking on a hidden screen from one of the scientist’s videos. It was named 'D-1' and contained way more files than the actual mission case did.

"Where did this come from?" Soojin's eyes dart everywhere on the screen, surprise written all over her face.

"I found it, I've been digging harder the past hour"

"What does it all say?"

Jaehee purses her lips, scanning the room for any hidden cameras or microphones.

"Hey Jungeun, can we all go for a walk or something?"

"We just went on one like two hours ago", Jungeun says, raising her eyebrow at Jaehee.

"I know, but I found some", she tries to tell Jungeun that they need to talk with her expression and voice, _"Things"_

Jungeun looks at her with a concerned face, but soon both of her eyebrows shoot up to her hairline, "Oh. Okay, yeah, let's go"

Jaehee smiles at her success, swiftly pulling the flash drive she had on the table out and pushing it into her pocket. The group files out of the room, walking into the main hall and looking for Sooman. Jaehee sees most of the desks empty, checking her watch and almost cursing out loud at how early in the morning it was. No wonder no one has bothered them for a while. Hyunjin and Heejin had only left a couple of hours ago, Jiwoo had texted them and said they were at the forest entrance half an hour ago. She didn't even realize it had been that long.

"We're going for a walk, we'll be right back", Jungeun calls out to Sooman who is sitting at her desk in front of the stone structure.

"But I just got back", Yeojin’s voice travels through the large room, everyone turning to her small hunched body.

"A little exercise never killed you", Soojin jokes, slinging her arm around the younger girl.

"What are you doing up anyway?" Jungeun asks.

"I took a nap after training so I could come down and help, which was obviously a horrible decision"

The group had decided to get Yeojin into training after they stopped going through the data so much, she needed the training and she had agreed. But she still came by in the early hours to help out if it was needed, which Jaehee gratefully appreciated.

The group walks out of the command center and up the concrete slant, taking in the early morning air. It was pretty chilly outside, Jaehee huddles closer to Soojin as they continue walking down to the Pit. Once they finally get there, Jaehee takes them to a secluded area and pulls out the flash drive.

"This thing right here could take down the entire Mobius company, along with leaders down in OEC and 1/3"

"I'm sorry, what?" Jungeun asks.

"I did some serious digging, like really seriously, and found an attachment hidden in an encrypted file. I got through all the firewalls, but none of the stuff on this drive is pretty. There are countless reports on corruption, secret killings, things Atlas would do. I didn't go over everything, I just skimmed through and found this", she plugs the flash drive into her tablet, illuminating the screen enough so the others could see.

Silence washes over the group.

"Holy shit, Mobius is working with Atlas"

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	13. XIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sing it with me everyone, filler chapter filler chapter!!!

-

"Hyunjin, oh my god, it's really you!"

Heejin watches silently as Kyungwon runs out of the box and flings herself at Hyunjin. Hyunjin sees her keep the gun half raised, probably confused and skeptical about the situation.

"You're…alive?" Hyunjin asks Kyungwon, hesitantly moving her arms around her long-lost friend.

"You look so much older, I didn't think you could get any taller but look at you! And your hair, wow your hair looks nice, you start using some special shampoo or something? And jeez, kid, relax on the weightlifting, you’re gonna get too bulky!"

Hyunjin can't bring herself to smile at Kyungwon’s ranting because she's angry. Angry that Kyungwon is alive and healthy and she didn't know, angry that Kyungwon hasn't even tried to contact her for two years.

"You're alive", Hyunjin whispers to herself, pushing Kyungwon back with an incredulous look on her face.

"Hyunjin?" Kyungwon furrows her eyebrows at the tan soldier.

"What the fuck Kyungwon?" She raises her voice, clenching her fists, and stepping closer.

"Woah hey, why're you angry?"

"What do you even mean why am I angry? You disappear for two years and all of a sudden you just show up? What the hell are you doing out here? How are you alive? Why didn't you tell me anything?"

Kyungwon starts stuttering, unable to get words out, "Hyunjin, this isn't you, you don't get angry-"

"YOU DONT KNOW ME", Hyunjin screams, "You haven't been there for me for two years, you have no right to say what is and isn't me!"

Kyungwon stares in silence at Hyunjin, her face falling before realization washes over her, "She didn't tell you"

"What?"

"Yerim, she didn't tell you. She didn't tell you anything, about why I had to leave?"

"No, she was just as traumatized as I was!" Hyunjin practically screams, red hot anger boiling everywhere in her body.

"Oh my god, they got her too then", Kyungwon paces around, running her hands through her hair that seems to have gotten so much longer.

"What are you talking about?

Hyunjin has absolutely no idea what Kyungwon is talking about and why Yerim is involved with it. It just makes her angrier, her best friends knew something obviously bad and didn't tell her. And now one of them is dead.

-

"Chaewon I'm sorry okay? I thought it was gone"

"Heart diseases don't just disappear!"

"How was I supposed to know that?

Chaewon swings her head around and glares intensely at her girlfriend. They had spent a lot of yesterday morning just lying there talking, Chaewon still recovering from her horrid dream. But she was reminded of why she had the dream in the first place when one of the doctors came in to check on them. It had sparked some anger inside of her and she started ranting about how stupid Hyejoo was to not tell anyone, and Hyejoo had just sat there silently.

"Chaewon"

"What if I hadn't gotten here in time? You could be dead!"

"Chaewon"

"And you just didn't think about it? Serious training where some people are passing out and you just didn't think about it?"

"Chaewon"

"Like I love you and everything but are you an idiot? And don't even get me started on your friends not telling us because-"

"CHAEWON"

She stops pacing and turns to Hyejoo who is grinning at her in the bed.

"I'm sorry, Princess, I am. I honestly thought it was nothing to worry about. And I didn't wanna bother or worry you with it"

Chaewon watches her girlfriend hangs her head and pick at her nails, smiling sadly and sitting on the edge of the bed.

"Hyejoo, I don't care, okay? I wouldn't have cared if you told me a couple of days ago. I wouldn't have stopped liking you just because of some heart disease. If anything, I would've dragged you to a doctor and gotten you checked out. Your worries are my worries"

Hyejoo looks up to Chaewon with tears in her eyes and Chaewon's heart breaks, having never seen this side of Hyejoo and now she wishes she hadn't.

"I'm sorry", it comes out as a broken whisper.

"Hey, no, don't cry", Chaewon moves so she's sitting next to Hyejoo, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend and rubbing her back soothingly.

They sit for about an hour, Hyejoo silently crying as Chaewon comforts her. She feels bad for getting angry now, she didn't want to worry Hyejoo about not being there for her. Because of course, she wants to, she's just so upset that Hyejoo didn't tell her. And yeah, they've only been dating for like a week but Chaewon has never loved and cared for anyone so much before it drives her insane.

"I don't mean to interrupt, but I'd like to have a talk with both of you for a moment", the doctor's voice startles the couple.

"Yeah, of course", Hyejoo says as she wipes her tears away.

Chaewon slides off the bed as the doctors closes the door, "What's this about?"

"Just a checkup mostly, I've gone over Hyejoos charts and hopefully she'll be back up and training in another week. Like I said after the surgery, we got most of the clotting out and with our new equipment we can speed up the healing process. It'll take a lot of resting though, and once you do get back on the field, you'll have to work your way back up from easier to harder things. If you ever get symptoms or pass out again, you'll have to come straight back here so we can do some more tests and see what the problem is", the doctor says as he flips through his notepad, walking towards the heartbeat monitor, "Your heart beats been fine for the most part, there has been a couple of spikes in the past hour, but I assume that's from what I interrupted, I apologize again by the way"

"It's fine, really doctor", Hyejoo smiles faintly, taking Chaewon's hand in her own.

"Alright, I'll leave you to it then. I'll come back and check on you in a couple of hours, there are nurses out in the hall if you need anything", he smiles politely and walks out the door, leaving the couple alone again.

-

"No"

"Yes"

"No"

"Hyunjin can you just-"

"No, that's impossible, it's impossible"

"Listen you don't have to believe me, but it's the truth"

Heejin sighs as she watches the two interact, Hyunjin still in denial of everything Kyungwon had just told her.

Apparently, Mobius is working with Atlas and Heejin isn't even denying it. She knew something was up when they arrived, she just couldn't place it. And now that she knows they work together she's just plain angry. She was angrier at herself for trusting people, but Kyungwon had told them that EDEN and a lot of the other companies didn't know about it. Only the leaders of Mobius, OEC, and 1/3 knew. Then she started explaining how her and Yerim had found out and started investigating but were caught, and that's why Kyungwon disappeared. It was all super confusing to Heejin, she didn't know the back story of Kyungwon and Yerim.

"Why?"

"We never got that far, but we overheard some things about Atlas buying out the leaders. It was bad"

Heejin had been silent most of the time, watching and listening to Kyungwon, "So what do you propose we do?"

Kyungwon blows out a breath and leans back, "I have no idea. You need to leave, first of all"

"But we can't, we have a mission to complete", Hyunjin explains.

Kyungwon's eyebrow raises slowly, "What kind of mission?"

"We're supposed to go to the building on the other side of the trees, Mobius said they sent in a volunteer team and they never came back, along with the tech team. They said zombies are involved"

Heejin watches Kyungwon closely, seeing the blank expression on her face. She thinks she's in shock, but she suddenly bursts out laughing. Heejin and Hyunjin share a look of confusion, watching the brunette double over in her seat.

"Uh, Kyungwon?"

"Oh god, I’m sorry, that's just so funny", Kyungwon manages to get out in her fit of laughter.

"What is?" Hyunjin asks hesitantly.

"It worked, they actually fell for it", Kyungwon sits back up and wipes tears from her eyes, collecting herself slowly, "We made all of that up, or I did at least. That building is practically abandoned, it's occupied by some rebel group"

Heejin and Hyunjin stare at Kyungwon, both taken aback by this new information.

"So, no zombies, no threat of zombies, and no Atlas having weird new technology?" Heejin asks.

"Yeah, the only threat you have of them are double agents. No one in EDEN knows besides me and Yerim, and I'm surprised she still hasn't told you anything about it. How is she by the way?"

Heejin tenses up as Hyunjin stills, both of them silently panicking.

"She's…dead"

Kyungwon's face falls and her mouth opens and closes a bunch of times, "What?"

"She was shot last year, we were flying over the Arizona desert and a rebel managed to disguise himself as our pilot. I gave him a pistol to protect himself just in case. He shot her on accident, he was aiming for Haseul but Yerim stepped in front of her and we had to crash the plane", Hyunjin explains somberly, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

Heejin takes her girlfriend's hand and rubs her thumb across the smooth skin.

Kyungwon is silent for a while, obviously taking it hard as well.

“She’d be the one to die trying to protect someone”, Kyungwon chuckles, wiping a few stray tears from her cheeks.

Hyunjin leans forward and grabs her hand, knowing there isn’t much to say about the situation.

-

Soojin groans as she opens her eyes, bright light hitting her directly in the face. She rolls over in her bed, her eyes adjusting to the light slowly. She hears the light snoring of Jaehee in the bed next to her, all of the sheets thrown back. Soojin laughs lightly, pulling back her blanket and slipping out of the bed.

"Jaehee, get up", she throws a pillow at her best friend, successfully waking her up.

"Piss off", she hears her groan as she slips into the bathroom, turning on the shower.

She stares into the mirror, sneering at the heavy bags sitting under her eyes. She hasn't had much sleep the past few days, she's sure it's late in the afternoon right now. They stayed up all night going over the D-1 project, there was too much information to go through in one day and they ended up staying up late enough to hear back from Hyunjin and Heejin. It was around 7 in the morning; the sun was starting to rise, and the group decided to call it a day.

Soojin thought it was too much information to take in, and it really was. Learning that your company’s leaders were working with the enemy was hard, and they really needed to come up with a plan to leave and stop them. And maybe they couldn't stop them, but EDEN needed to know and Soojin needed to know if Haseul and Minkyung knew anything.

"Soojin hurry up, you're gonna take all the hot water!"

She rolls her eyes and turns the shower off, not realizing how long she'd been in, "I'm going, calm down!"

She hesitantly pulls on her towel and walks out of the bathroom, not wanting to face another day.

-

"What are we gonna do?'

"I don't know, we can't tell anyone until we find out more"

"What about the mission? We know it's not real so what are we supposed to do tomorrow?"

"We need to gather a couple of people and ask them, Haseul and Minkyung are our leaders and if they're a part of this we're screwed. Jungeun and them deserve to know, but we can't tell anyone else"

"But Kyungwon said Haseul and Minkyung don't know anything, why are we asking them about it?"

"It's been a year since Yerim died, who knows what Jaden and Sooman have gotten them into", Hyunjin whispers.

"And what if they do know something? They'll know we know and cut off our heads or something"

"I'm hoping it won't come to that"

Silence washes over.

Kyungwon coughs distractedly, “So…uh…You said Minkyung was there?”

“Oh my god, you’re absolutely ridiculous”

“Hey! You try living out here for two years all by yourself! You’d get lonely too!”

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come yell at me here   
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	14. XIIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in the actual cod game the exo suits can't do anything near as cool as what I wrote into this chapter, but thats all part of the fun right?
> 
> TW // violence

-

It's been a week. A week since Chaewon almost had a heart attack, a week since the tech team found out about Mobius working with Atlas, and a week since Hyunjin and Heejin came back.

They went and pretended to go along with the mission, but they just went to Kyungwon’s little set up in the woods and got some fake data to give Mobius. They still haven't come up with an idea to get their team out, they only have two days left before they're supposed to go back to EDEN.

Hyunjin told the tech team what was going on when they had a free day, she still can't believe Mobius actually fell for their fake data. It was mostly just saying they destroyed everything that was going on and contained the zombies and they weren't a threat anymore. Jaden seemed pleased and sent them off to train with the regular camp.

But when Hyunjin found out that the tech team already knew she was surprised, to say the least. She didn't know Jaehee knew how to get that deep into files, and she was proud. But the threat still stood, and things have been a little too calm and quiet around the base for Hyunjin’s likings.

"We have to tell Haseul", Soojin blurts out at dinner one night.

"Soojin we can't-"

"Yes, we can Hyunjin. If she knew something about it, she would've told us, and we wouldn't be here. She would've come up with some plan to destroy Mobius, not take us to the heart of the threat. She’s been our leader for years, you know she wouldn’t ever side with them and put us in danger"

Hyunjin hated how Soojin was right. They needed to tell Haseul before they left, just in case Mobius tried something.

She searches around the cafeteria, her eyes landing on their leader on the other side of the room, "Haseul!"

A couple of heads turn her way but once Haseul looks at her she motions for her to come over. She turns back to Minkyung and Vivi before hopping out of her seat and walking to Hyunjin’s table.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Hey, uh, listen, don't freak out or anything, but-"

"You do realize telling me not to freak out before you say something is gonna make me freak out more right?"

Hyunjin’s mouth opens and closes a couple of times before Jungeun takes the lead, "Just sit down for a second, this is serious"

Haseul sits down slowly, "Okay, now you're actually starting to freak me out. What's going on?"

Jaehee pulls out her flashdrive and slides it across the table to Haseul, "Mobius is working with Atlas"

All heads turn towards her as she lays it out plain and simple, but no one really had a plan on how to tell Haseul anyway.

They all watch her carefully, trying to judge her emotions as she stares down at the flashdrive.

-

"Babe, wake up"

Hyejoo stirs awake, slowly opening her eyes to see Chaewon looking down on her.

"We have to go"

"What?"

"Come on, get up, we have to leave"

"But I'm not cleared to leave yet, Chaewon, what're you doing?"

Chaewon is scrambling around, shutting off the machines, and throwing clothes at Hyejoo.

"Chaewon!"

"I'll explain later, right now I need you to focus on getting out of here as fast as we can"

Hyejoo starts to internally panic, but she slides out of the bed anyway and throws the clothes on, watching Chaewon move around the room.

"Are you ready?"

Hyejoo opens her mouth to protest but she nods anyway.

Chaewon pulls her out of the room, she already feels a little lightheaded, but she walks to the right of the hall. It's dark outside, she can tell by the way all the lights are dimmed and the soft glow from the windows at the top of the walls.

"Chaewon where are we-"

Chaewon shushes her quickly, putting a finger on her lips. Hyejoo narrows her eyes at her girlfriend but follows her farther down the hall. They stop at an intersection, Chaewon peeking around the corner slowly and looking around everywhere.

She nods her head to the left, pulling on Hyejoos arm and dragging her farther down the hall. She watches all the rooms go by, some occupied and others completely empty. They're about to round another corner but a voice stops Chaewon.

"He's doing fine, we just need to get him into surgery...No I promise...Alright I'll let you know, I'm heading to A Wing now"

Hyejoo knows she was in A Wing so the doctor must be heading their way. Chaewon quickly pulls her behind a large cart of bed sheets and pillows, pushing her between the space of the wall and the cart. She listens as the clicking of heels gets closer, the doctor eventually walking right past them without noticing. Hyejoo feels Chaewon relax, but quickly gets pulled from the small space and around the corner. She can see the exit door at the end of the dimly lit hall, which must be where they're going.

"Do you know how to hack alarms?" Chaewon whispers to her.

"Yeah, why?"

"We have to turn the alarm off of the fire exit to get out. They'll know we're leaving if we don't"

Hyejoo sighs heavily, walking faster to the exit door. She looks around the lock and notices a slightly lighter patch of paint next to the frame. She smirks, placing her hand on the patch and pushing in. The wall sinks in, revealing a keypad and jumbled wires.

"This is gonna take a second", she says to Chaewon who sighs.

"We don't have a lot of time, the shifts are about to switch"

"Just let me concentrate", Hyejoo snaps and leans down so she's eye level with the keypad.

It's not a serious lock, she only has to cut one of the wires. The problem is figuring out which one she's supposed to cut in the mess of them. She pulls the wires out carefully, quickly sorting them out and finding where they're attached on the keypad.

"Two minutes Hyejoo"

"Hush"

She grabs a knife from a nearby table, using it to pull a blue wire out.

"Please be the one", she prays before cutting it. It's silent for a moment, and she thinks she cut the wrong one but a soft ding and a robotic voice let her know the alarm has been cut off.

"Alright come on, we don't have much time", Chaewon whispers as she pushes the door open, dragging Hyejoo out into the humid air.

They jog down the metal stairs as quietly as they can, reaching the ground level and running to an opening in the building. Chaewon looks around the corner and presses a button on her wrist pad.

"I got her out, where are you guys?"

"Had a little trouble getting past the security on the armory. We'll be there in a couple of seconds", Heejin's voice says quietly.

"Chaewon what the hell?"

"Mobius is working with Atlas", Chaewon says offhandedly as she taps on her wrist some more.

"I'm sorry, _what_?"

"Listen I'll explain it to you later, right now you just need to trust me and listen so we can get out of here alive"

Hyejoo stares hard at Chaewon, debating whether she's telling the truth, or if this is just some stupid exercise. Or maybe it's a dream, she can't really tell. Her heart is pounding too fast and her head is starting to hurt from moving around so much.

"You're lucky I love you", Hyejoo says with a frown on her face.

Chaewon smiles and quickly pecks Hyejoos lips, "I know, now come on"

They turn around the corner and jog down the tunnel, Hyejoo can hear a car driving up from the echo of the tunnel. When they reach the edge of the tunnel a large truck pulls up and the back door opens, revealing Vivi and Yeojin.

"Get in, we only have a couple of minutes to get across the base"

-

_8 Hours Earlier_

"You're not fucking with me?"

"Oh my god for the last time, no! We're serious"

The entire table groans again, having said this at least ten times as Haseul sat there and denied it.

"But why?"

"We don't know, the most I've found out is Atlas buying out their leader"

"So, what you're saying is, Jaden and Sooman are talking and working with Atlas right now?"

"Yeah, they have been for the past three years"

"And this zombie thing?"

"Not real", Hyunjin speaks up again.

"How do you know?"

Hyunjin opens her mouth to respond but she doesn't know if she should tell Haseul, "Kyungwon did it"

Haseul stares open-mouthed at her for a minute, "I'm sorry what?"

Heejin sighs heavily next to her, "Kyungwon had to leave Sentinel when she and Yerim started digging through things and got caught. That's why she disappeared, and by some strange luck, she happened to be in the same forest that was in between us and the fake Atlas facility. She and Yerim had come up with a fake animating program to trick Mobius and send some people out. They ended up getting ambushed by the rebels holding up the facility and she still hasn't heard anything from them. And she probably won't"

"When did this all start happening, how are we not dead yet?"

"It started three years ago, my guess is Atlas started buying out the leaders slowly and worked their way up the chain. 1/3 was first, then OEC, and then Mobius. I'm sure EDEN and YYXY are next on the list, if they aren't already being bought"

"So, what do we do now? Come up with a plan to kill them or something?"

"We were going to leave that up to you, actually. You are the leader after all"

"We have to tell everyone then"

"Wait no!" A collection of protests follows Haseul as she starts standing up.

"Why not? They all deserve to know if we're gonna make a plan"

"You know we can't do that, half of them will get pissed enough to go and kill them right now and that's not what we need. Let's wait until we get back home, and then we can plan"

"And what if they're already planning on doing something before we leave?"

"We're soldiers, we'll fight"

-

After hours of waiting and pacing around respective rooms, Haseul finally provides them with a plan.

"We have to leave today. This stuff is bad, really bad, and I'm not staying here another minute. Get everybody gathered and packed"

"Haseul they'll notice, and Hyejoo is still in bed rest"

"I don't care, Minkyung and I have talked, and this is crossing over the line. We leave early in the morning, we'll get Hyejoo out and we'll take whatever we need. I want you and Heejin to get into your stealth suits and get data from the Armory and the Command Center. Minkyung and I will be gathering everyone and getting packed. Jiwoo and Jungeun will handle getting our rides, we'll be taking the bus and two trucks back. Chaewon is gonna go get Hyejoo out, Soeun, Jaehee, and Soojin will handle security and making sure we don’t alert Mobius, and Jinsol and Sooyoung will be helping with equipment. Is that understood?"

Everyone at the table shares a knowing look and nod, quickly getting up from the table and taking the necessary people with them.

-

"Looks like we're getting our stealth mission after all", Heejin says jokingly to Hyunjin as they quickly walk down the concrete slope to get their suits.

"I'm just glad we get to take some souvenirs", Hyunjin smirks as they get to the alleyway.

Heejin remembers the passcode to the armory after watching Sooman punch it in so many times. So, the first part is easy, the only problem they really have right now is getting into the glass cases that hold the suits and weapons.

"How do you think we should do this?"

"Well, we're special ops. We'll hack into the system and get it open. And if we can't, there has to be a button around here somewhere"

They search around the dark room for a couple of minutes, Hyunjin managing to get the weapons case open but they don't have any luck with the suits. Heejin leans on the glass, her eyes trailing to the sides of the case. There's a lock system on the corners of the cases, latching the glass to the inside of the wall. She can see a faint line where wires have been laid, her eyes travel across the bottom of the case until she finds exactly what she needs.

The wires lead to a panel on the side of the wall, a tiny hole lets her open up the wall and reveal a touch screen panel.

"Bingo", she whispers as she taps on the screen and a firewall system pops. She's had plenty of security hacking experience, so she gets through the firewalls with ease. When a command screen pops up, she taps on the button labeled "Open Cases" and the sound of unlocking gears causes her to smile.

"Where did you learn how to do that?"

"Atlas, but I used it against them more than for them"

Heejin winks as she pulls the suit down, quickly slipping it on and grabbing all the equipment for it. They're suited and walking out the door in less than two minutes, jogging down to the command center doors.

"How are we gonna do this?"

"No one works in the data cache section this late at night, we can just set a bug in the system so they'll open up all the firewalls and download everything before they fix it. We won't have to go to the command center, all the things we need are in the cylinder"

"Great, let's do this then"

-

"What the fuck do you mean Mobius is working with Atlas?"

"Listen I don't know anything about it okay? Hyunjin and her team have been working on it for the past week, they know just as much as we do but we need to leave now"

Jinsol is skeptical, they would have known by now if their own people were working with the enemy. But they didn't mention anything about EDEN knowing anything.

She and Sooyoung are supposed to go gather weapons and equipment from the storage rooms and bring them back to the bus to take. She knows it's going to take a lot of work to get everyone's Exo Suits back into the bus, but she knows this is serious and they'll have to hurry.

Everyone in the room starts dispersing to their areas, Jinsol and Sooyoung running down to the storage area. They quickly unlock the doors and start pulling things out, grabbing everything that they can and hauling it out to the exit. Jungeun pulls up to the door after a while of packing with a truck, she starts helping out too. They manage to get through four rooms before Haseul comes down and tells them they're leaving in an hour.

-

A bullet flies past Jinsol’s head, angering her further.

“You motherfuckers! You were never gonna let us leave in the first place!”

She picks off as many people as she can as they move through the base, which is really taking longer than it should.

“Go faster, Jiwoo!”

“I can’t! You want me to crash this thing and get us stuck here?”

Jinsol rolls her eyes, focusing back on shooting at the trucks following closely behind them.

Sooyoung stands next to her in the bed of the truck, silently shooting into the night.

“Where the hell are Hyunjin and Heejin? They should be here by now!”

Jungeun turns back from inside the truck, mouth open to respond but she closes it quickly, raising her arm to point into the distance.

Sooyoung and Jinsol stop shooting when they notice two figures in the distance, their colors glowing brightly and letting them know it’s their missing friends.

What they don’t expect, though, is for them to be moving at the speed of the trucks as they run.

“What the fuck?”

“Fucking adrenaline junkies”

Jinsol watches as Hyunjin moves closer to the enemy trucks, eyes widening in disbelief as she slams her entire body into the side and sends the truck flying. Heejin does the same with the truck next to it, causing them to crash into each other.

“Holy shit”

They watch Hyunjin jump onto the top of one of the tanks following them, raising both arms to the sky and slamming them down, causing a bright yellow explosion. She jumps off of the tank right before it blows to pieces and hops onto the next one, followed closely by Heejin.

_“Are you guys seeing this?”_ Jiyoon asks through their comms.

“Yeah, they’re fucking ridiculous”

A bright pink light disturbs them again, but this time it’s a thick beam of light pointed directly at the fleet of soldiers following in trucks.

The beam lights up the ground in front of the trucks and creates a thick wall of fire. Hyunjin jumps up into the air and hovers there, forming a yellow ball of light that she sends straight to the fleet. It hits the first truck and destroys it, and Jinsol just watches in awe as it creates a wave of energy that completely destroys the rest of the fleet.

_“We’re coming up on the exit, Hyunjin and Heejin need to destroy the watchtowers and the exit so they can’t follow us out”,_ Haseul’s voice cracks through their earpieces.

Hyunjin and Heejin drop back to the ground and speed towards the truck that Jinsol sits in. They jump in and land with a thud, causing the bed of the truck to wobble.

“Oops”, Hyunjin says sheepishly before she flies back up into the sky and towards the front of their company.

Heejin shakes her head, following her girlfriend and leaving Sooyoung and Jinsol confused and amazed.

They watch the duo rain hell onto the watchtowers, and eventually, EDEN are out and past the gates. They all watch Heejin and Hyunjin move together, creating a singular beam of orange lights that spreads all across the gates of Mobius.

“What the fuck have they been doing in training?” Jungeun asks offhandedly, but honestly, none of them would mind learning what they do that makes them into super soldiers.

_“Good work, ladies. You have the green light to fall back in and rest. We have another long journey ahead of us”_

The duo land to the ground and make their way to the truck again, this time landing softer and immediately laying down in the bed.

Hyunjin laughs, “Sorry we were late, we took the liberty of downloading some new Exo abilities”

Sooyoung and Jinsol stare incredulously, “Yeah, no fucking shit”

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	15. XV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS SO SHORT AND I AM SO SORRY I KEPT FORGETTING TO UPDATE ILL GIVE YALL THREE CHAPTERS TODAY IM SORRY 

-

They get back to EDEN before the sun starts rising. It's silent as everyone starts unpacking the trucks and the bus, some confusion as to why they were just being shot at by their own people and some trying to come up with a plan to get out.

"Everyone head to your rooms and get some sleep. We'll have a team meeting later once everyone's rested", Haseul calls out to the girls who are walking slowly to the building.

"What are we gonna do?" Hyunjin says as she steps next to Haseul.

"I don't know. We'll figure it out though, we always do"

Hyunjin nods slowly, picking up her pace slightly so she can get to her unit faster. Everyone's moving like slugs, exhausted from the traveling and the stress.

She has no idea where Heejin or Sooyoung is, so she just walks up the stairs alone, slowly making her way to her unit.

"Night everyone", she calls out as she passes open units.

"Night Hyunjin", she gets a couple of responses but none of them are Heejin or Sooyoung.

She sighs, walking the rest of the way to her unit and throwing everything on the floor when she gets there. She smiles at the sight of her bed, falling face-first into it and closing her eyes.

She spends ten minutes relaxing her muscles and evening out her breathing, but she gets disrupted but a knock on her door.

"Haseul needs you in the conference room", it's Soeun.

"Of course, she does", Hyunjin whines and smiles tiredly as her apologetic face.

Soeun follows Hyunjin down the hall, "You'll probably get to sleep later, you've got the worst of this stuff"

"I guess, I just don't know what we're gonna do once Mobius gets the word to Atlas we left"

"If it was just Jaden and Sooman then wouldn't everyone else be on Sentinel's side? They wouldn't just turn their backs on us, would they?"

"I don't know Soeun, this whole situation is a mess. Jaden and Sooman are powerful leaders, if they give a good enough deal anyone in Mobius would follow them. I just don't know why the hell they would turn their backs on us like that"

"You don't think Atlas is planning anything, do you?"

"They're always planning something. What that something is, though, I don't know"

They walk back down the last set of stairs and turn to the left, walking farther down the hall until they reach the conference room.

"You asked for me?" Hyunjin announces herself to the room, finding Haseul, Minkyung, Jinsol, and Sooyoung surrounding the table.

"Hey this won't take long, just have a seat"

Hyunjin sits in the nearest chair, which just happens to be next to Sooyoung, and leans back as she listens to Minkyung.

"So, we did some damage to Mobius transportation, communications, and their ability to get outside for a while. We don't know how long we have to figure something out, but we need to get out and into hiding as soon as possible"

"Woah woah woah, leave?"

"Well yeah, we can't exactly stay here-"

"But this is our home, it has been for seven years. We can't just leave it, we're soldiers for a reason, we can fight them off"

"Hyunjin you know our soldiers won't fight their own brothers and sisters", Sooyoung whispers.

"There's no other way Hyunjin, we need to leave"

She sits there silently, thoughts running everywhere through her head. EDEN is her home; she can't just leave everything behind. And where would they go? There aren't many places in America left after all the attacks. She can't even begin to think of anywhere to go.

"We'll regroup everyone in the afternoon, it's just something to start thinking about. I'm not going to let anyone die here because we decided to stay", Haseul states firmly, getting out of her seat and walking straight out the door.

Hyunjin sits still, things still running through her head.

"Go get some sleep, Hyun", Jinsol says with a pat on her shoulder.

Yeah, like she'll be sleeping.

-

"Chaewon I don't feel too good-"

"Wait babe not over here- ugh"

Chaewon holds Hyejoos hair back as she throws up, rubbing her back soothingly.

"If you weren't my girlfriend, I'd punch you in the face for making me do all of that running, right out of surgery too- oh jeez"

"Shh, I know"

Hyejoo fell asleep the second they got out of the Mobius zone, Chaewon was kind of glad she did. It didn't give her the chance to throw up or anything of that sort. But once she woke up and started moving around, she started hurling everywhere, Chaewon's still seriously worried because throwing up wasn't one of the side effects the doctor had mentioned. Maybe it was just getting active so soon out of heart surgery, but it was still nerve-racking every time Hyejoo bent over.

"Come on, we have to get you to the infirmary"

"You think?"

Hyejoo glares coldly at Chaewon, wiping her mouth and walking towards Jiwoo and Jungeun who are heading there too.

"Well, you look like shit", Jiwoo jokes as they catch up with them.

Hyejoo groans, rolling her eyes, "Yeah, tell me about it"

They walk silently to the infirmary, Jungeun weakly pushing open the doors. Bright light hits Chaewon in the face and she has to squint to see inside.

"Oh, thank god, there's no one in here"

Jungeun sighs happily at the empty room, throwing herself onto one of the gurneys. Chaewon guides Hyejoo to one of the beds, laying her down carefully.

"Babe go get some sleep, I'll be fine"

Chaewon chuckles, "If you think I'm leaving your side you're wrong"

"I love you"

Chaewon smiles and plants a kiss on Hyejoos forehead, "I love you too"

"Great, now hand me that trash can before I hurl all over you"

-

"Soojin are you in there?"

"Uh, yeah, what's up?"

"Yeojin wants to know if you accidentally took her shoes"

She throws her hands up exasperatedly, angrily swinging her door open. Jaehee is staring up at her innocently, her hands behind her back as she rolls back and forth on her heels.

"Woah, are you okay?"

"I'm fine"

It’s an easy lie, coated with nothing but anger and sadness. She's been like this for three days. Three days of lingering in her own thoughts. It's starting to drive her crazy, she hates everything that's going through her head. It's starting to affect the way she talks to Jaehee and Yeojin, she hates it.

"Okay", she knows Jaehee doesn't believe her, "Well if you don't have them, I'll just be on my way"

She starts walking off, leaving Soojin to mope in her doorway.

"Hey, Soojin?"

Slowly, she looks up and the look in Jaehee's eyes is unreadable, "Yeah?"

"Just", her mouth twists, "Just try to get some sleep okay?

Soojin smiles sadly, "You get some too"

She hesitantly shuts her door, debating if she should go camp out in Jaehee's room.

She laughs coldly, thinking it’s ridiculous how weak she's becoming. She doesn't even know what started it, or why. She just wants it to be over with already.

But it only feels like it's getting worse as she stares up at her dark ceiling, restlessness making its way through her body. She's not getting any sleep tonight, she hasn't been getting sleep for a week. And she's tired, so tired of working and fighting and just living in general.

She just wants it to stop.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	16. XVI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big TW for this chapter!! TW//// Suicidal thoughts/attempt, heavy topics in general so please be careful with this chapter!

-

A loud alarm wakes Jinsol up, causing her to groan and shake her head.

"Please god no"

Sooyoung groans next to her, throwing a pillow over her head.

"It's not enough"

They've been asleep for 8 hours, and yeah, it definitely wasn't enough. It was nothing but tossing and turning, restless and dreamless sleep that left Jinsol way more tired than she already was. And making out with Sooyoung for two hours before they both finally passed out didn't help.

"Come on Sooyoung, we have to go"

"Fine, but they better not complain about what I wear"

Jinsol rolls out of the bed, shuffling through the covered floor. They had thrown everything in random places, falling into the bed right when they got in. It was dark too, so they had no idea where anything was going.

Jinsol opens her drawers and pulls out a sweater, slipping it on and turning around to the door. She freezes, noticing strewn clothes hanging in random places.

"Wow, we really must have been out of it", Sooyoung mumbles, grabbing one of Jinsol's hoodies and heading out the door.

She chuckles, walking after Sooyoung and into the hall. Mostly everyone is walking like zombies, dragging their feet as they continue down the hall. Everyone except Yeojin, because of course, she has the most energy. Mostly everyone looks like they just threw on a sweater or a hoodie and walked out, it makes Jinsol chuckle again.

"God this was the worst idea ever!" Jiyoon yells.

"Shut it, we're all suffering"

-

Heejin almost doesn't wake up to her alarm, if Hyejoo hadn't come pounding on her door she wouldn't have made it to the meeting. Now that she's here she wished she hadn't woken up, they've been listening to Haseul talk for the longest 30 minutes of their lives.

"Now like I said, we don't know a lot about the situation-"

"Oh, for the love of God, who does then?"

Laughter erupts through the room as Soeun sighs heavily.

"Come on, I'm not that boring", Haseul says with her hands on her hips, but she gets responses of disagreement, "Okay fine, Hyunjin and Jungeun were the captains of this mission so I'll let them take over"

Hyunjin and Jungeun stand, moving to the front of the room while chatter goes through the crowd. Heejin is sitting near the back in a corner, wanting to get a little sleep in before she's asked to say or do anything. She listens to Hyunjin's voice anyway, focusing on the softness of it instead of the actual words coming out.

She hasn't really talked to Hyunjin in a while, not since they came up with the plan to leave. She misses Hyunjin, even though she's literally in the same room. But she misses the funny, stress-free, caring Hyunjin that she loves.

And there goes that word again. Love.

Heejin scoffs, she knows she's in deep by now. She's not even going to try and push the thoughts away, she loves Hyunjin so much and it's starting to drive her crazy. She wants to tell her, wants to so bad but it’s been two weeks. You don't tell someone you love them after two weeks.

"So, Mobius is working with Atlas, we know that much. There are a couple of officials in OEC, 1/3, and YYXY working with them too. We learned this when Jaehee was going through fake data caches, there was a file hidden in this video file", she clicks a button on a remote and a screen comes out of the wall.

She has to look away when the video starts, it's one of the 'zombie' ones. Even though she knows it's fake it still creeps her out.

" _Holy shit_ is that a _zombie_?" Jiyoon screams.

"I'll get to that in a second. Right now, I need you all to understand that we need a plan to leave EDEN. I understand that this is our home and that it's been our home for a long time but we're not safe here. Mobius and Atlas are gonna find a way to hurt us, we know they're only targeting the military and intelligence, they don't care about the civilians here. If we move them out by the end of this week that'll give us some time to pack our things and come up with a plan"

Jungeun nods, clicking the remote so something else comes up, "We don't know why they're doing this, Atlas bought them out somehow and that's all that matters. As for the zombie thing, that's more Hyunjin's area"

Heejin notices the tension in the room grow, a couple of people shifting in their seats uncomfortably as Hyunjin steps to the middle again.

"First things first, they're not real. It was a computer program, kind of like a cartoon but with a lot more realistic material and a lot of thinking put into it. We thought it was real and that they were being held in a facility a couple of hours away from Mobius. But the facility that was supposedly holding them was just an old warehouse taken over by a group of rebels. When Mobius sent their men in, they thought they were actually going to be dealing with zombies, but they weren't. I don't know what happened to them, they were top of the notch military. I'm guessing the rebels were trained a little more than they thought"

"So, who made the video?" Monday asks.

Heejin watches Hyunjin tense a little, she knows she's been struggling a lot with the fact that Kyungwon is still alive. She hasn't made a plan to get her with them yet, Heejin doesn't really blame her though.

"Uh, don't freak out or anything, but Kyungwon did"

Silence.

"As in, our Kyungwon who disappeared without a trace?"

"Yeah"

It takes a couple of seconds, but eventually, everyone starts freaking out and talking to each other. Hyunjin shakes her head, whispering to Jungeun who looks shocked.

"Guys!"

The room grows quiet at Hyunjin's voice.

"Yes, she's alive, and I'm just as shocked as you are. We stumbled on her living arrangement, _thing_ , when we were trying to find the van that Mobius sent out. She was hiding in the woods, she was healthy and perfectly fine, we're trying to think of a plan to get her with us as we speak. This was all her doing, and she and Yerim were the ones to find out that Atlas was buying our people out. I don't know why they kept it a secret, I assume it was to keep us all safe but she's alive and that's all that matters"

The room nods in agreement, "Alright. We start tonight, be in the conference room by 8. Our schedules are gonna be pretty messed up for the next few weeks, so get used to it"

Groans echo through the room, but everyone eventually files out of the room and back up to their units. Heejin knows everyone’s going to go and sleep until they're dragged out of their rooms, but now that she's awake she doesn't think she can get back to sleep.

She's walking to the cafeteria, slowly, dragging her feet and yawning every couple of steps. Her stomach grumbles, causing her to glare at it.

"Yeah, I know, chill out", she mumbles to herself, forcing the glass doors open lazily.

A couple of girls are in the line getting food, some passed out on the tables - which Heejin thinks is pretty funny - and others just walking around like zombies.

"Hey Heekie, why aren't you going back to sleep?" Yeojin's voice causes Heejin to jump.

"Jeez Yeojin, you scared me", she takes the teenager under her arm, "I can't get back to sleep now, too much on my mind"

"I understand"

They walk to a table in the corner, both of them pulling out tablets in silence.

"So Hyunjin, huh?"

"What about Hyunjin?"

"How's it going?"

Heejin looks up to Yeojin, narrowing her eyes at the teenager.

"Good", she says suspiciously, "Why?"

"Just wondering"

She goes back to her tablet, Heejin watching her for a second before turning back to hers.

"How's the downstairs area going?"

"Yeojin!"

-

"I'll shoot you if you shoot me"

"That's impossible"

"No, it's not, we count to three and pull the trigger"

"Okay but you could say on three and I would think after three, so I'd be dead before you"

"So we do it on three. What's so hard about that?"

"Will you two quit arguing?"

Hyunjin and Jiwoo clamp their mouths shut once Jungeun turns around and glares at them.

All three of them are walking to the armory, Haseul needed them to clean some stuff and start packing since they were staying awake. Hyunjin doesn't think she can go to sleep anyways, and even if she did it'd be pretty restless.

The three turn the corner down to the armory, the glass doors hissing open once they get there.

"So, what should we start packing first?"

"Nonessentials, knives, anything that doesn't deal with guns, explosives, tactical weapons"

"We might need explosives though"

"What are we gonna do, blow the Mobius company up or something?"

"Hey, you never know what Haseul's planning. Not to mention the absolute wreck you and Heejin made of them"

Hyunjin rolls her eyes, walking over to the tactical case. She punches in the code to unlock it and starts pulling things out, putting blades in one pile and explosives in the other. It doesn't take long; EDEN doesn't usually use explosives on missions.

By the time she's done Jiwoo and Jungeun are still arguing, but now it's about the most logical way to get rid of Mobius.

"Right so while you two have been arguing like the married couple you are, I separated blades and explosives. You can do the rest, I'm going to find my girlfriend"

Jiwoo and Jungeun grow silent, watching Hyunjin walk out of the armory and down the hall.

"Losers"

-

"Jaehee no you can't do that that's cheating!"

"No, it's not, I didn't see the card!"

"Oh you're so lying, put it back Jaehee"

"I got it fair and square what are y’all talking about!"

"Okay hold up, hold up"

Sooyoung groans, laying her cards down on the floor in front of her so she can rub her temples. She's been playing Monopoly with Jaehee, Monday, Jihan, Jinsol, and Soeun since they got out of the conference room. To say it had gotten tense very quickly was an understatement, Jinsol almost had to hold back Monday from choking Jihan.

"Why are we even playing this stupid game?" Sooyoung asks and the yelling stops, replaced by gasps of disgust.

"This game is not stupid", Jaehee emphasizes her point with the flaying of her hand.

"Honestly Sooyoung, that's like calling dancing stupid", Jihan says also.

"Hey, dancing is not stupid!"

"I didn't say it was"

"Okay, I think that's enough for today, Sooyoung come on", Jinsol practically drags her out of the room, the yelling starting back up the second they walk out.

"So where are you taking me my knight in shining armor?" Sooyoung asks, skipping alongside Jinsol as they walk hand and hand down the hall.

"To bed, my queen", Jinsol smiles, picking Sooyoung up and twirling her around.

Sooyoung laughs happily, hanging tightly onto Jinsol’s neck as they get closer to her unit. When they get to the door, Sooyoung is slung over Jinsol’s shoulder, so she passes the time by lightly tracing a pattern into the soldier's lower back.

"Keep doing that and I'm gonna fall asleep Soo", Jinsol says as she sets Sooyoung down.

The tan soldier hangs onto Jinsol, pulling her down so that their lips latch on together. And just like every single time before, Sooyoung gets butterflies and she practically melts against her girlfriend.

"I love you, I love you, I love you", Sooyoung emphasizes each I love you with a kiss, a large smile spreading across her face.

"I love you too babe"

They both smile, Jinsol back-peddling until they both fall onto the bed.

"Now let me show you how much I do"

-

"Soeun I swear if you even think about taking that property"

"I'm allowed to do what I want Jaehee, leave me alone"

"She’s gonna tear you to shreds if you do though"

"Wouldn't be the first time"

Jaehee groans, throwing her cards off somewhere as Soeun takes her property. She's kind of tired of playing Monopoly anyway, they've played three different games after Jinsol and Sooyoung left.

"Guys this is getting tiring, I don't think I wanna play anymore", Jihan admits, standing and stretching.

"Yeah, I don't think I can go any longer without cutting one of your throats", Monday stands as well.

"You guys are no fun", Soeun stands and stretches her arms, "Fine, let’s go get some food or something"

Jaehee stands up last, following the others out of the unit and into the dimly lit hall. They get halfway to the stairs when Jaehee stops in the middle of the hall, a confused look on her face.

"Has anyone seen Soojin today?"

"No, I haven't actually", Soeun says, turning around to face the others.

"Was she at the meeting earlier?"

"I have no idea, I haven't really seen her much"

An uneasy feeling settles in Jaehee's stomach, she knew something was off about her last night, but she just thought that it was her being tired. She was starting to notice something else though, it was something in the way she carried herself and how her eyes seemed dull. Jaehee didn't like it, not one bit, so she all but sprinted down the hallway down to her unit.

She bangs on the door, swinging it open. It's dark in the room, pitch black even, she has trouble finding the light switch for a second but it's no use. The room is totally trashed, clothes and blankets were strewn everywhere to show an empty bed.

"What the hell?" She mutters to herself, backing out of the room and turning around to the group.

"She's not in there"

"She could be hanging out with the others, wherever Jiyoon and Zoa are", Soeun suggests.

Jaehee's mouth twists, her eyes searching the empty hall.

"I'm gonna go look for her, wherever she is", Jaehee whispers to herself, pushing past everyone and sprinting down the hall towards the cafeteria.

She bursts into the room, searching around the mostly empty room. With no luck, she sprints back out of the hall and down to the armory where she might be practicing. She almost runs into the glass doors but catches herself and pushes past them.

"Woah Jaehee, slow down there, dude", Jiwoo's voice startles her, she almost crashes into the couple but catches herself again.

"Have you seen Soojin?" She rushes out.

"Uh, no we haven't, why?"

Jaehee shakes her head, the worry in her growing even more. She starts muttering to herself, running back out of the armory. She runs around everywhere, bursting into random rooms and closets, but she doesn't find Soojin. There's literally no trace of her anywhere, so she goes back to her room and starts searching around. She's spent almost an hour looking around everywhere, she even asked Zoa if she had seen her.

"Where haven't you checked?" Yeojin joined in on finding her, both of them are cleaning up her room and looking for anything that could tell them where she could be.

"I've checked everywhere, I don't know"

She runs a hand through her hair, gazing around the room one more time. She tries to find a note stuck somewhere, or maybe a hidden message, but she can't think of anything. That is until she looks at the picture of a sunset hanging above the bed.

"Oh my god, that's it!"

"What?"

"What time is it?"

"Like, a quarter to seven, why?"

"I know where she is"

Jaehee runs out of the room, towards the staircase that leads up to the roof. She walks up the two flights of steps to the top, bursting out of the door. The light from the setting sun hits her in the face, her vision has to adjust for a second before she looks around the roof. She sees Soojin standing near the edge, her shoulders slumped and her head hanging.

"Soojin!" She yells, but the soldier doesn't move.

Zoa runs up next to Jaehee, both of them staring at Soojin now. Jaehee feels her stomach flutter, nothing about this situation feels right to her.

"Soojin?" She starts walking towards her best friend, but her broken voice stops her.

"I'm sorry"

"What?"

"I’m sorry, I can't do this"

Jaehee laughs nervously, "What are you talking about Soo?"

Jaehee watches her take a deep breath before turning around, the sight breaking her heart. Her eyes are surrounded by black circles, her cheeks stained with tears and her eyes are so sad.

"Woah, Soojin what's wrong?" Zoa asks, both of them stepping forward but Soojin puts her hand up.

"Don't- Don't come any closer, please"

Jaehee can feel her stomach drop now, she scans the ledge for any weapons and feels dread settle into her bones at the outline of a pistol.

"Soojin, what are you doing?" She asks firmly, her voice almost catching in her throat.

"I can't, this is too much, I'm not strong enough Jaehee"

"What are you talking about?" Zoa asks, both of them still confused.

"This war, Zoa! I'm tired of it, I'm tired of all this fighting and this pain. I'm tired of fighting, I'm tired of all of these complications that keep happening. Our own people are working against us, everything's falling apart right before our eyes and you all just act like it's okay!"

"That's what you do during war-"

"No! No, you can't just pretend like things are okay, you can't just pretend like people aren't dying out there every single day!"

"We're not pretending like they aren't Soojin!"

"Then why am I the only one that’s feeling like this?!"

Jaehee clamps her mouth shut, she doesn't know what to say to her best friend. She didn't know that she was feeling like this, let alone that they were all acting differently. But she should have seen it, she should have seen the signs and now it's all coming to her. The short answers, the lack of energy, the emptiness in her eyes, and the slump of her shoulders everywhere she went. Soojin's hurting, her best friend since she was little is hurting, and she wasn't doing anything about it.

"How long have you felt like this?" Jaehee whispers, she felt like if she talked any louder Soojin would break.

"You remember what happened to Yerim?"

Jaehee cringes, "Yeah"

"I had it at that point, I don't wanna lose any more people Jaehee. Not you or Soeun, not Jihan, not Jiyoon. I'm just tired Jaehee"

"Okay so, how about we just go back inside, and we can talk about this-"

"DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? I'm tired, I don't want to do any of this anymore. I don't want to work this out! I want to just, leave!"

"We need you though-"

Soojin scoffs, turning back around towards the sunset, "Right, like I matter to any of you"

Something inside of Jaehee clicks and sets off, every muscle in her body tenses and she feels anger boiling in her stomach.

"YOU DONT GET TO SAY THAT”, she screams, “You don't get to decide how we feel about you! You're my best friend Soojin, you're lots of people's best friend and you can't just stand there and tell me you don't matter! Cause you matter like hell to me, not just because we've known each other since we could walk but because I love you! I love you and I'm not gonna stand here and watch you throw your life away. We care about you, and we need you. You're my rock Soojin, my rock, my shoulder, my escape, you're everything to me! There's plenty of girls inside that could tell you the same thing. And I get it, this war is tiring, and it's gone on for too long but it's ending soon! It's all gonna be over and we can go back to doing nothing but singing super loud karaoke and staying up until it gets light outside! Just, please don't do this"

She's lost it, it all just comes tumbling out and she can't control it. There are tears pouring out of her eyes, she doesn't want to lose Soojin to this. She doesn't want to lose Soojin at all and she never thought it would come to this. She thought Soojin was fine, she thought everything was fine, and now that she's here, begging her best friend not to take her life she realizes that she's not fine either.

Soojin is silent, and she is for a while. Jaehee's scared she's gonna grab the gun and pull the trigger or jump over the ledge, but the only movement is her turning back around to face Jaehee.

"I'm so sorry"

Jaehee's about to run towards her to stop her, but Soojin runs into Jaehee's arms in a bone-crushing hug, sobs ripping through her body. Jaehee wraps her arms around Soojin, sobbing along with her.

"It's okay, you're okay", she sighs and pulls Zoa in the hug, "We're all okay"

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	17. XVII

-

"What about Gulf City?" Heejin finally speaks up, causing the room to go silent.

"Florida? You want us all to move to Florida during this massacre?" Haseul seems slightly taken aback.

They got back into the conference room an hour ago, getting to work as quickly as possible so they could leave. They start evacuating the civilians tomorrow, which is going to be an absolute mess, but they'll make it work somehow.

"It's a total ghost town, no one has lived there for over a hundred years"

"I thought the point of moving was to avoid the enemy? Going to Florida would just be going straight into them"

Heejin huffs, "It was just an idea, it's the only ghost town I can think of right now"

"There's plenty of ghost towns, choosing which one is the biggest problem", Hyunjin says as she walks to the front of the room towards the map, "If we get out some teams we could go north and south, we need to be as far away from the corrupted Sentinel and Atlas, so I suggest we stay in the mid-west or we go down south"

"Where are we going to find the supplies to do this?"

"We search the labs and warehouses around the area, maybe going as far as Denver. There's over 500,000 military personnel in Sentinel so we could just work with them", Hyunjin explains as she circles areas on the map.

"Everything near Texas is Atlas territory, there’s no way we can get past their defenses", Vivi speaks up from her seat in the back.

"Then we cancel out all the Atlas territory, we go for the West Coast and down in Central", Hyunjin takes a black marker and puts x's over the North-Eastern states.

Heejin watches carefully as Hyunjin works across the map, there are lots of states that Atlas has taken over, but Sentinel seems to have a lot more land in general. She's never really been outside of EDEN besides Mobius, but there seem to be hundreds of blue flags on the map.

"How many people do you really have in Sentinel?" Heejin whispers to Haseul.

"Too many to count. There are hundreds of bases on the West Coast, and there's even more in the Central. We usually only work with two other companies besides Mobius", Haseul walks next to Hyunjin and points to Oregon and Florida, "YYXY and OEC"

"Hyunjin mentioned the YYXY once, they seem like the most uncorrupted Sentinel company"

Haseul laughs and moves out of Hyunjin's way, Heejin finally noticing that half the team has moved to the front of the room. Jiwoo moves around the board with Hyunjin, marking off certain places on the map.

"Alright then ladies", Haseul booms to get everyone’s attention, "Let's get to work"

Cheers echo through the room and Heejin watches everyone unfold into their work modes. Clipboards and pieces of paper are passed around, but Heejin has no idea what to do or where to even start with their new mission. She was never one for tech work, Atlas always just told her what to do and she'd do it. Sadly.

"Hey, Heejin, can you come help me with this?", Hyunjin’s' voice grabs her attention and just like that, she's off to work.

-

It took six hours for the team to tire out. Everyone was either asleep in their chairs or standing around like zombies with only a little energy left. Hyunjin was still sitting in front of the map, her eyes lazily grazing across all the flags and pen marks that she and Jiwoo had made. She slowly turned her head around, laughing at the amount of strewn paper and fallen heads.

"Why did we think that was a good idea?" Jaehee asks as her head hits the back of her chair.

"Because the sooner we get done with this the sooner we can leave", Zoa’s voice almost scares Hyunjin, she hadn't heard the young girl talk the entire day. She hadn't even seen Soojin recently either, which is weird because the three are usually attached at the hip.

"Yeah, well I think it's time to call it a day, I don't think any amount of coffee could help wake any of us up", Haseul stands up and stretches slowly, grabbing the attention of a couple of people.

Soon everyone but Jiwoo and Soeun are out the door and going back to their rooms. Hyunjin was almost too tired to go back up to her room but Heejin was asleep in her lap.

"Heekie", she whispers, "Heejin, come on we gotta get up"

"No, I don't wanna", she mumbles and cuddles closer to Hyunjin.

Hyunjin sighs and shifts so her arms are under Heejin's legs and back. She lifts Heejin off her lap and carries her out of the room. She decides against going up the elevator because she doesn't want to wake Heejin up. She groans loudly when she sees the stairs in front of her.

By the time she reaches the fourth floor her calves are burning, but Heejin managed to stay asleep the entire time. Hyunjin sighs in relief when she reaches unit 1, glad that Heejin still hadn't put a passcode on it. She presses the wall next to the door and they slide open, revealing a completely trashed room.

"Christ Heejin, do you not know what cleaning is?" Hyunjin whispers as she steps over piles of clothes and papers.

She finally reaches the bed, laying Heejin down carefully before stretching her arms out. She's about to try and walk back out of the room when she feels a hand hook into her shorts.

"Stay with me", Heejin mumbles when Hyunjin looks down at her.

"Heejin-"

"Please, I don't want to be alone", Hyunjin figures Heejin is completely awake now that she's forming full sentences.

Hyunjin sighs and slips out of her shoes quickly, causing Heejin to smile widely and scoot closer to the wall. Hyunjin lifts the blanket up and slides in, Heejin immediately laying her head on Hyunjin's shoulder and wrapping her arm around her stomach. Hyunjin slides her arm over Heejin's shoulder, running her hand through the shorter girl’s hair.

"Goodnight Heekie"

"Goodnight Hyunnie"

-

Soojin hears a knock on her door, not really caring who it is. Well, until she hears Jaehee's voice and she perks up slightly.

"Hey, can I come in?"

It takes a lot of energy, but Soojin eventually gets it out, "Yeah sure"

The door opens and light comes pouring in, but it disappears quickly as Jaehee shuts the door.

"Jeez okay, uh, where are you?"

Soojin lets a small smile stretch across her lips, the first one in a couple of days. It's pitch black in her room, it has been since Jaehee pulled her off the roof and made her stay in here. Soojin appreciates how much Jaehee cares, and she definitely appreciates the effort she made to not let her do something stupid. She just wishes this feeling would go away, that she could just be happy and feel free.

But it's not that easy, it's never been easy. She gave up everything she had ever wished for to get her and her friends to safety. She's sacrificed a lot in the past seven years, and she thanks whatever god is out there that Jaehee's still alive.

And that was a completely different thing. Jaehee made Soojin feel different. Like she belonged, like she was safe and at home. If anyone else had come up on that roof Soojin would've pulled the trigger without a second thought. But seeing Jaehee stand there all rigid and worry filling her eyes she couldn't do it. Jaehee's her reason for living, she's the reason she keeps fighting and fighting. Sure, everything's caught up to her now and she seriously just kind of wants to go to sleep and never wake up again, but Jaehee keeps her from doing that.

"Just turn on the light Jaehee"

She scoffs, "Uh, that'd be easy if you actually had a light on in the first place"

"It's on the wall behind you"

She hears Jaehee shift around for a second, and then her light comes on. She's glad it's broken so it's not that bright.

"Wow, you look like shit", is the first thing her best friend says.

And it's true, she feels like it too. She's done nothing but sit in the dark trying to cope with her feelings. Didn't really work out that well since Jaehee had to go to the team meeting.

"Yeah, thanks", Soojin rolls her eyes, sinking farther into her bed.

-

"Sooyoung, get a camera, now"

"We only have polaroids on this floor"

"Even better"

Sooyoung sighs and jogs to a storage room next to the elevator. She rummages around for a second before she pulls out a black polaroid camera. She jogs back to where her girlfriend is standing, now noticing that it's Heejin's unit.

"Jinsol what the hell are you doing?" Sooyoung whisper yelled.

"Just give me the camera", Jinsol snatches the camera from Sooyoung, earning a scoff and a glare.

Sooyoung looks into the unit, seeing nothing but a mess everywhere, "Are you here to document a tornado or something?"

"No, HaSoo, look", Sooyoung follows Jinsol's finger to the bed pushed into the corner of the room.

Sooyoung almost gasps loudly when she sees Hyunjin and Heejin tangled up with each other and the blankets. Hyunjin looked peaceful, like she had no worry in the world at all. The creases were gone from her forehead and Sooyoung swore she saw a faint smile on her best friend’s face. And Heejin was actually smiling, the permanent scowl now gone from her face.

"Holy shit, Jinsol, hurry and take a picture before they wake up"

Jinsol quickly snaps a picture, but the flash was way brighter than she expected. Hyunjin grumbles and shifts, causing Heejin to mumble something and open her eyes. When her eyes land on Jinsol and Sooyoung standing there with a camera her scowl comes back, but ten times scarier.

"Uh, hey Heejin, good morning", the couple says together.

"What are you doing", Heejin asks through gritted teeth.

"Just checking up on you is all, last night was kind of tiring", Sooyoung laughs nervously.

Hyunjin is slightly awake by now, her calm face turning to confusion and anger when she looks at the couple.

"They're cinnamon rolls, they won't do anything right?" Jinsol whispers to Sooyoung as they begin backing up.

Hyunjin and Heejin share a look and scramble out of the bed quickly.

"Shit! Angry cinnamon rolls! Angry cinnamon rolls!" Sooyoung yells as she runs out of the unit and to the right. Jinsol took to the left of the unit, running around a corner from what Sooyoung could see.

"You're a dead bird, Sooyoung!" She hears Hyunjin yell.

"Get back here you giants!" She also hears Heejin yell, obviously, they split up to catch Sooyoung and Jinsol.

Sooyoung can hear Hyunjin catching up and decides to pick up her pace and turns around a corner towards Haseul's unit. When she reaches 3, she bangs on the door, Haseul almost immediately opening.

"No time to explain, can I hide in here for a second?"

Haseul sighs and steps aside so Sooyoung can run in, shutting the door quickly just as Hyunjin rounds the corner.

-

"Jinsol, get back here!" Heejin yells as she runs around the corner and catches a glimpse of Jinsol.

"Not in a million years!"

"Did someone call my name?"

Heejin's eyes widen as Jiyoon suddenly steps out of her unit, almost causing the two to crash but Heejin quickly turns and spins around her, yelling an apology as she continues down the hall. She sees Jinsol turn left, which is odd because she didn't think there were any units past thirty. When she turns the corner, she catches a glimpse of a body before she collides with it and falls to the ground with a loud thud. Heejin groans as her elbows and ribs hit the hard floor, the wind getting slightly knocked out of her.

"Goddammit Jinsol, you are so lucky-", Heejin throws herself on top of who she thinks is Jinsol, ready to strangle her, but realizes that it's Hyunjin.

"How did you-"

"Oh my god did I hurt you?"

Heejin frantically searches Hyunjin's body for any visible cuts or bruises, but Hyunjin grabs Heejin by the collar to get her attention again.

"I'm fine, just hit the ground a little hard", she says with a laugh.

Heejin laughs also, getting lost in Hyunjin's voice and her stare, not even caring that they're inches apart. The two grow quiet, Heejin now noticing her hands on either side of Hyunjin's head. She can feel Hyunjin's hands just above her waist, gripping her slightly as to keep her planted on the ground. Heejin doesn't even feel herself leaning closer to Hyunjin, she's too lost in her stare to notice anything at all.

"Team meeting in ten!" Haseul's voice travels through the halls, causing Heejin to jump slightly.

"Uh, we should probably go-", Heejin tries to stand but Hyunjin's hands squeeze her hips and keep her on the floor, "Hyunjin?"

"I don't care about the meeting right now", the soldier whispers before leaning up and kissing Heejin.

Heejin is caught off guard, she hadn't expected Hyunjin to take control like that. After a moment Heejin finally realizes what she's doing and eagerly kisses Hyunjin back. The kiss is deep and yearning, both the girls putting all of their emotions into it. Heejin's hands find their way into Hyunjin's hair while Hyunjin's hands pull Heejin even closer to her.

"Oh, come on guys seriously?" Jiyoon's voice makes Hyunjin and Heejin jump apart, "You have two perfectly good units, with soundproof walls, to do this in"

"Who're you talking to?" Zoa rounds the corner and bursts out laughing at the sight of a flustered Hyunjin and angry Heejin, "Oh my god that is the funniest thing I have ever seen"

"You're welcome", Jinsol and Sooyoung say together as they pop their heads around another corner.

"You planned for this to happen?" Heejin asks with a crazed expression.

"Jinsol just wanted to take a picture", Sooyoung laughs and walks over to Hyunjin, picking her up and handing Heejin a polaroid.

Heejin smiles at the picture, she's tangled in the sheets with Hyunjin and sleeping peacefully, "Still gonna kill both of you"

"Yeah yeah, have fun doing that", Jinsol grabs Heejin's hand and hoists her up, quickly walking away with Sooyoung.

Zoa smirks at the pair while Jiyoon shoots a glare at them. Hyunjin sticks her tongue out at them, turning her attention back to Heejin.

"Come on Bunny, we've got a meeting to get to"

Heejin grabs her hand and they walk down the hall together, following the girls walking out of their units. Everyone seems mostly rested, it's a little later than they would usually wake up so the extra time must have freshened people up. Especially now that Sooyoung is going around doing crazy stuff she would normally do, Heejin hopes she's been doing better ever since her fight with Jinsol.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	18. XVIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> very sorry I keep forgetting to update I've been with my family for the holidays

-

"Chaewon I swear I'm fine"

"Tell me that when the doctors agree to that"

"They've been trying to tell you that for the past two hours, I'm fine as long as I don't overwork myself!"

"It's not enough, they're gonna have to do more tests or something-"

" _Chaewon_ "

Hyejoo knows she's crossed into dangerous territory once her tone hardens, but she doesn't really care right now. Well, she thinks she doesn't until Chaewon turns around with hurt filling her eyes.

"I'm fine", she sneers out, "If the doctors say I am, then I am. I feel fine, I look fine. I'm. Fine"

It comes out a lot harsher than she had intended, but she needs Chaewon to understand that she really is fine now, and she can go out on her own.

Something in Chaewon's demeanor changes and Hyejoo instantly feels regret.

"Right, I'm sorry. You're fine, I'll see you later"

She storms out, leaving Hyejoo alone in the infirmary. She didn't mean to upset Chaewon, but all the pestering and standing over Hyejoo like a child was getting annoying. She's an adult, she can handle herself. She handled herself fine before they joined EDEN anyway, she has no reason to be sorry.

But then again, it's Chaewon, and fuck she really loves Chaewon. They may have only been together for a short time but Hyejoo is nowhere near ready to mess that up now.

It takes all of her strength to unattach herself from all the chords and get out of the room, but once she does, she feels a new kind of energy run through her as she chases after her girlfriend.

"Chaewon!"

She can see her blonde ponytail swishing around in the slight sea of citizens moving around the area. She tries to speed up, but the crowd gets thicker and thicker as they near the center block.

She ends up getting pushed along with the crowd towards the hangers. She tries to leave and push the other way but glares and yelling from other soldiers push her into a large truck with a bunch of other citizens.

"Hey, you don't understand I'm a soldier! Son Hyejoo, EDEN recruit!"

A large man with a thick beard and icy cold eyes forces her back into her seat, "That's what everyone else has been saying. Sit down and make this easier for all of us"

She's about to fight back but the guy closes the latch to the truck, darkening the room.

"What's going on?" Hyejoo asks the nearest person.

"They're moving us to another facility, said we would be safer if we weren't here"

Hyejoo can feel the panic building up in her stomach. She knows she's not supposed to be here, she just needs to get people to believe that she's actually a soldier. She looks around the dark truck, realizing there's no other way to get the soldier's attention than pounding on the back door.

So she does.

It takes a minute, but eventually, the latch opens back up and the same soldier from before stares up at her.

"Son Hyejoo, I'm under Jo Haseul and Kang Minkyung in the EDEN Sentinel Force. If you don't believe me get Park Chaewon down here, she's my girlfriend"

"Look, we were supposed to have these trucks out 10 minutes ago. I don't care who you are or who your girlfriend is, you can complain once we get you out to the other facility. Until then, I'm gonna need you to sit your ass down and shut up"

Hyejoo scoffs at the soldier, disbelief at his manners towards her. But she shuts up anyway, sighing loudly as she sits back down. The latch closes again, and she can feel the truck start up.

She knows she's in for a long ride, so she pulls Chaewon's old hoodie closer to her and shuts her eyes.

-

"I didn't think this many people actually lived here"

"You don't know a lot of things about this place Heejin"

"Shut up"

Heejin playfully shoves Hyunjin into the wall as they walk with the crowd. Haseul assigned them to the West wing, which Hyunjin remembered as much smaller than this but things have obviously changed.

The two continue down the long hallway with the crowd moving next to them, Hyunjin’s hand tapping lightly against the rifle in her arms. Haseul also made them suit up completely just in case something went wrong but Hyunjin doubts anything is gonna happen. The only thing they've had to deal with the past two hours is confusion, which they had to reply very vaguely to.

"Oh my gosh, I can't wait until this is all over", Heejin groans as they enter the West Hanger.

"We can leave as soon as this group gets in the trucks, I promise"

Hyunjin pulls Heejin to the sidelines of the hanger, walking along the edge until they're at the large opening where most of the other soldiers are. Her eyes sift through the crowd until she finds Wonho, the commanding officer of the West wing.

"Officer Wonho!" Hyunjin almost forgets her formalities, Haseul and Minkyung are so laid back sometimes she forgets she's actually in the military.

Wonho’s large figure turns around, along with a couple of officers near him, "General Kim!"

Hyunjin smiles widely as they all salute her, "At ease officers, how are we doing?"

"We only have five more trucks to get through, besides that the East wing is ten minutes behind and the North had a bit of a scuffle so they're trying to sift through that"

"Anything I need to worry about in the North?"

"Nothing Jinsol couldn't handle, she radioed in a couple of minutes ago and said they were back to normal"

Hyunjin nods slowly, "I'm going to head to the South wing and see if they're doing alright. Radio if you need anything"

Wonho smiles widely and salutes her again, "Will do, General"

Hyunjin nods to the others, turning on her heels and heading out of the hanger.

"General, huh?"

Heejin's voice causes her to jump, she had forgotten she was standing behind her, "Uh, yeah"

Heejin looks at her expectantly but she stays quiet, "There something you're not telling me?"

There's a lot Hyunjin isn't telling her. She never thought it was necessary to explain it, it never really came up anyways. She worked hard for her title and all of her decorations, but it was never a light subject. She was thrown into a high level of Sentinel at a much younger age than everyone else. It didn't necessarily happen on purpose, she just worked hard and Haseul practically took her under her wing the first year. It didn't take long for her to become a field soldier, and she got recommended for a lot of missions the second year. But she still made mistakes, she's not the perfect soldier and she hates admitting that. All of the awards and recognition she's gotten were because of her hard work.

She's not huge on the formal and protocol thing though, she only gets called General in serious situations and during training.

"It's just a formality, they think since I'm so decorated and stuff, I should have the title"

Heejin is silent for a second, the only sound is the clanking of their armor, "Why don't you like being called the proper title?"

Hyunjin shrugs, "Just seems unnecessary"

They resume their walking quietly, Hyunjin quickening her pace a little so the silence would end faster.

"So, does that mean you're more important than Haseul?"

Hyunjin sighs heavily, "Technically yes"

"Then why aren't you the captain?"

"They were in the military long before me. Plus, they're older and they have better leadership skills. I'm more of a lone wolf, I always did special missions on my own before you"

Hyunjin almost smiles, Heejin really had changed her life.

She takes Heejin's silence as the end of the conversation, which she seemed to have planned perfectly as the hanger entrance to the South wing came into view.

"General! Over here", Sooyoung’s voice grabs Hyunjin attention in the far corner of the full hanger.

"How are you on timing?"

"Five minutes ahead, we just sent in the third wave of trucks. We should have the rest out in the next half hour"

Hyunjin was never used to having her friends call her by her title, it was even weird for them but apparently, Haseul was going in full force today.

"Good, if you get done early head to the North wing. Jinsol is having some trouble keeping everyone contained and I'm sure she could use your help"

"Understood", Sooyoung salutes Hyunjin quickly and turns back to the unit behind her.

"What now?" Heejin asks Hyunjin as they stand quietly in the corner of the hanger.

"Now we wait"

-

"Jiwoo"

"Jiwooming"

"JIWOO"

Jungeun lightly taps the back of her girlfriend’s head, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Ow, jeez, Jungie, what the hell?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes", Jungeun glares hard at her, "Haseul needs us in the private hanger. Something about the chopper not starting"

Jiwoo groans loudly, sitting up off of her bed.

"Come on you lazy bum", Jungeun grabs Jiwoo’s hand and drags her out of their unit, down the hall, and into the elevator to the roof.

"The one day I don't wanna be in the chopper, you pull me to the chopper", Jiwoo grumbles.

Jungeun gasps, feigning disbelief, "Where is my Jiwoo and what have you done to her?"

Jiwoo rolls her eyes, placing a light kiss on Jungeun's lips just as the elevator doors open.

"Jiwoo get your _ass_ over here and fix this _god damn chopper_!"

"Oh boy"

Haseul only uses that tone when she's agitated and angry, neither of which are good on her.

"What's the problem?"

"Damn thing won't start and we need you up and flying with the trucks in 20 minutes", Haseul grunts as she lightly kicks the step bar on the side.

"Okay, how about instead of kicking the already damaged chopper, we sit down and calm ourselves a little", Jiwoo says carefully, pulling Haseul away.

The captain grumbles something about fixing the chopper before storming off the roof.

"Okay then, let's see what's wrong with this guy"

-

"What do you mean she's on one of the trucks?"

"She kept trying to tell me she was part of the military and I wasn't believing her because of all the other civilians trying to tell me the same thing-"

"And you didn't think twice when she said to call Officer Park and Captain Jo down here to prove it?"

"Uh, no ma'am-"

"Don't ma'am me, where the hell is the convoy?"

Heejin chuckles at the sight of the large and burly man sweating and sputtering, “I-I have no idea, ma’am- I-I mean, General!”

“And what exactly did you say to Officer Son when she stated very specific names to you?”

The man gulps, “I-I said I didn’t care who she was, she could complain when we got to our destination, General”

Heejin’s stomach drops, Hyunjin’s eyes widening and taking hold of an emotion that Heejin can’t place.

Her voice is low and challenging, “You listen to me now, boy. You didn’t join this branch to disrespect your superior officers and those who are risking their lives for you to be able to have a simple, easy job like this. The moment I have my Officer back you _will_ be making a trip to the Command Center to apologize to her and the other officers you have so foolishly disrespected. Am I understood?”

The man looks like he’s shitting himself at the moment, face red and beads of sweat practically drenching his face. He nods quickly.

Hyunjin rubs at her temples, “You’re all fucking useless. Figure it the fuck out, and don’t speak to me until you have answers”

Hyunjin looks at him expectantly, but he looks around nervously, probably waiting for a direct order.

Which is fine, Hyunjin will give that to him.

“Get the fuck out of my sight!”

Heejin's eyebrows shot up to her hairline at Hyunjin’s voice, she hadn't ever heard that much authority in her tone before.

The soldier nods and scurries away, it's kind of funny considering he has at least half a foot on Hyunjin and his muscles are practically the size of her head.

“I’m not gonna lie, that was kind of hot”

Hyunjin barks out a laugh.

"So, what do we do now?"

"I don't know babe, Jiwoo should be up and following them soon so we can just radio in and tell her to keep an eye out when they land. Haseul might need us to go with her, though"

Hyunjin rubs her temples with her hand and stares out at the last of the trucks that are leaving.

"Hey, it'll be fine", Heejin says as she runs her hand over the small of Hyunjin’s back, leading her out of the hanger, "Come on, you're tense and stressed out"

"Wait where are we-"

"Hush, no more talking okay?"

Hyunjin squints her eyes at Heejin but shrugs and follows her anyway. Heejin pulls her out of the hanger and back towards the center block, through the winding halls until they get to the EDEN wing, and up the stairs until they're both back at their unit.

"Take everything off"

Hyunjin's eyes practically pop out of her head, "What?"

"Your armor, off", Heejin states plainly with her arms crossed.

"Okay", she drawls out before slowly pulling the heavy suit off of her body.

Heejin's eyes are glued to the soldier’s body, slowly grazing all over her lean and toned muscles.

"Now what?"

Her head snaps up to Hyunjin's eyes, a smirk spreading across her face. She quickly reaches around her back and unlatches her suit, pulling it off of her body.

"Now, we shower"

-

The warm water running over Hyunjin's tight skin was slowly bringing her a little peace. Heejin's hands rubbing slowly into her muscle was a lot more peaceful though, Hyunjin didn't know she had the ability to work through her tension like this. She'd been so busy walking around all day she hadn't even noticed how stressed her body was.

Heejin's hands work their way down from her shoulders to her lower back, snaking around her waist until Heejin is pulling her against her front and placing light kisses across her shoulder. Hyunjin leans back against Heejin's naked body, lacing her fingers into the hands on her hips.

"I would've been a lot more willing if this is what you meant by showering", Hyunjin says with a grin spreading across her lips.

"I thought you got the idea at 'Take everything off'", they both chuckle, Hyunjin turning in Heejin's arms.

Hyunjin can't help but smile as she stares into Heejin's eyes.

"What?" Heejin asks with a smile.

A thousand thoughts run through Hyunjin's head. She wants so bad to tell Heejin, to just smother her in love but she doesn't know if she should. It's only been two weeks, somewhere around there.

But as she watches the water run down Heejin's soft, smooth skin with that twinkle in her beautiful eyes, she doesn't care how long it's been. She can't keep ignoring the pounding in her heart when she looks at her girlfriend.

"I love you"

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	19. XVIIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for this chapter//// Violence, a gun fight if you will

-

"Kyungwon is being transferred under Haseul's command in a couple of hours, Cap wants to know when you'll be free to get her back into things"

"As of now, not for another day. We've got these trucks and a missing soldier to deal with before I get to anything else"

"Understood General"

Chaewon nervously picks at the paint on her Exo Suit, she just found out about Hyejoo getting put on one of the trucks, as if her physical condition wasn't worrying her enough. Hyunjin must notice her nervous habit, she feels a strong hand on her shoulder that grabs her attention.

"She'll be fine, we'll follow Jiwoo up in the chopper and find her once we get to the facility"

"Are you sure? What if something happens with the truck? Or someone starts a fight with her? What if she-"

Hyunjin widens her eyes at how fast words are pouring out of her friends’ mouths, "Okay, okay, calm down for a sec, yeah? Hyejoo can handle herself, she's gonna be perfectly fine and you can have a totally overdramatic and heart felt reunion once we get our people to the facility"

Chaewon takes a deep breath and nods, receiving a pat on the back from Hyunjin as she slides past her, "Who all is going?"

"Jiwoo, Jungeun, Heejin, and I so far. We've got one more spot in the back of the chopper, so you won't be crammed in one of the trucks"

"Great, let's go then"

-

"This is Falcon 9, General Kim reporting from EDEN squad. Can someone update me on how we're doing?"

_"We're all on time and on route to the destination, arrival time should be around 17:33 P.M."_

"Two hours on the road? Is there any way to speed that up? This chopper isn't gonna last two hours"

_"We planned ahead for that General, we're taking a pit stop 3 clicks away from the California border. Leading truck has chopper oil for you"_

"Wonderful, as you were then. Radio if you need anything"

Chaewon sighs, she doesn't think she'll last 2 hours in this cramped helicopter. It's not the big, cool one that Jiwoo helped build. Instead, it's just a regular military chopper with five seats and the worst air conditioner in the world. She never thought she'd be complaining about that during the war.

"Alright then, everyone get comfortable, this is gonna be a long ride", Hyunjin says with a sigh as she leans back in her seat.

Chaewon's upper lip twitches in disgust, she seriously doesn't want to be up here for that long. But she can't exactly get down now so she stretches her legs as far as they can go, crosses her arms, and closes her eyes. She might as well get some sleep.

-

When Chaewon starts stirring awake all she can hear is yelling and the loud chopping of the helicopter’s propellers. She groggily opens her eyes, feeling a different atmosphere in the chopper.

"I'm giving you one last chance to respond and get back on the road before we engage and do it ourselves"

"Hyunjin if we don't go after them now we're gonna lose them in the woods, Hyejoo might be on that truck"

"Then get this damn chopper down there!"

Chaewon sits up, watching the two go back and forth until Jiwoo finally pulls the chopper down towards the ground.

"What the hell is going on?" She asks over the propellers.

"One of the trucks went rogue, pulled off the road, and went towards the woods. The driver isn't responding, and we had five seconds of the radio channel on and all we heard was yelling a gunshot", Hyunjin rushes out as her Exo Suit starts putting itself on.

"Did they kill anyone?"

"There's only one way to find out", Heejin mumbles, pulling out her rifle and sitting on the edge of the chopper.

Chaewon nods and starts pulling her gear on, her nerves starting to run through her system. She hopes Hyejoo isn't on the truck, this situation could become a lot worse if she is. But she can't think like that right now, not when civilians’ lives are on the line.

"Alright, we're gonna have to jump this. Jiwoo can't stop the chopper fast enough to stop the truck. Are you ready Chaewon?"

Chaewon nods to Hyunjin, the three of them standing at the edge of the chopper as they get closer to the ground. Chaewon can see the truck now, it's driving full speed down an area cleared of trees.

Hyunjin gives one last look towards the other two once they're right over the top of the truck, as if to say good luck. Chaewon sends one back and takes a deep breath before jumping off the chopper and rolling onto the roof of the truck. Hyunjin and Heejin follow swiftly but the three of them are thrown to the side when the truck swerves to the right.

"Guess they know we're here", Heejin yells, sliding to the back of the truck and leaning down.

Chaewon follows her while Hyunjin crawls to the front. They manage to get the back panel open so they can see inside. Chaewon grabs Heejin's arm along with the other side of the truck and leans down into the opening, seeing the terrified faces of civilians and-

"HYEJOO", Chaewon doesn't even think about it, she swings her body down and hangs onto the doors of the back of the truck.

"CHAEWON STOP"

She's hanging halfway out of the truck when a shot rings through the air, there's a brief moment where she thinks she got hit but she realizes it went right past her head.

"Chaewon get back up here!" Heejin yells at her but there's no way she can climb back up with the truck moving this fast.

Hyejoo is in a headlock, a large man with a pistol pointed at Chaewon is her captor. She feels anger rush through her veins, adrenaline now pumping as she climbs back into the back of the truck. The man shoots again but Chaewon sidesteps it and slides forward, grabbing the man’s hand and twisting the gun out of his grip. He lets out a yelp, caught off guard and receives a fist to the face that knocks him out completely. Pain throbs in Chaewon's hand but she doesn't care once Hyejoo is practically tackling her to the floor of truck.

"I love you, I love you, I love you and I should have listened I'm so sorry"

"Don't blame yourself for this, I shouldn't have yelled at you like that-"

"Okay hate to break up this reunion but I kind of need some help Chaewon!"

Chaewon rolls her eyes, but it's short-lived as the truck speeds up even more and the two go sliding out of the bed. They don't have enough time to grab onto someone or something, so they tumble out, the hard dirt tearing at the exposed part of Chaewon's skin. She quickly catches her armor in the dirt and makes sure Hyejoo is on top of her, so she doesn't get hurt.

When they finally stop rolling, they both groan and look up to see the truck skidding to a stop and tipping over on the side.

"Shit", Chaewon whispers, punching the pad on her arm and using her Exo Suit ability to sprint to the side of the truck and lift it so it doesn't fall, "Kind of need some help Hyunjin!"

-

"Give me two seconds!"

Hyunjin slides the rest of the way off of the truck, she didn't get a good look at the driver or the guy who was inside the truck but whoever they were they're not knocked out.

She quickly jogs over next to Chaewon, using all of her strength to get the truck back on all of its wheels. Heejin joins them, and after a few seconds of grunting, they get it back up and start pulling people out.

"Is everyone okay?"

Hyunjin asks in general and she doesn't receive any negative answers.

"Great", she huffs heavily and wipes the sweat from her forehead, "Babe can you radio Jiwoo and tell her to get some more trucks back here?"

"Yeah sure", Heejin steps to the side and starts talking into her earpiece while Hyunjin goes back to making sure everyone is okay.

She's angry, to say the least. Angry that she let this happen, angry that it did happen, and angry that somehow Atlas or some other rebel group managed to get inside Sentinel. She's better than this, EDEN is better than this, she doesn't understand how this happened and it's seriously pissing her off.

"Don't blame yourself for this, we couldn't have known these guys weren't Sentinel", Heejin's voice startles her, but she relaxes once she feels her girlfriends’ hand on her back.

"But we could have, we could've had tighter security or something-"

"Hyunjin, we had the tightest security we could've had. These guys were obviously professional, it happens"

Hyunjin sighs but nods anyway, she knows Heejin is right but it's still unsettling to her. If these guys got in there's no telling how many other people there are undercover. They can't be the only ones, it just doesn't seem possible. That just makes Hyunjin even more nervous.

She's about to kiss Heejin's cheek when she hears a couple of screams and rustling around on the other side of the truck. Hyunjin and Heejin reflexively pull out their pistols and jog to the other side of the truck, neither of them liking the sight in front of them.

The civilians are backed up against the side of the truck, most of them shielding themselves away from the gun pointed at them. The man that was driving the truck before is using Hyejoo as a body shield, a heavy stream of blood running down the side of her face as she struggles to get free from the man.

"Put the gun down you idiot", Hyunjin growls.

"Yeah, over my dead body", he says as he visibly makes his grip tighter on Hyejoo.

"I would gladly make that happen", Chaewon pushes past Hyunjin and towards the man, her gun raised towards him.

Hyunjin tries to pull her back by the hook in her suit but she doesn't react fast enough. The man lowers his gun towards Chaewon's leg and pulls the trigger, the sound of the bullet hitting her skin makes Hyunjin cringe.

"NO", Hyejoo screams and thrashes around as Chaewon falls to the ground, her body turning limp.

Hyunjin closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, she knows the guy didn't hit anything important, but hell is gonna be unleashed once Hyejoo gets free. Heejin is still next to her, neither of them knowing what to do with one of their best friends' life on the line.

"Tell you what, I'll give you your precious civilians back. If, and only if, you let me go with your precious friend here"

Hyunjin's jaw clenched as a smirk spreads across his face, "I can't let you do that"

"Shame, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do anything more harmful"

Hyunjin doesn't know how to react, she can't. There's no way she's getting out of this with Hyejoo safe and she knows it. She knows it by the way the smirk practically jumps off his face, the way Heejin tenses up again, the way his gun raises and Hyejoo's eyes go wide.

She knows it by the way the shot rings out and everything seems to flash before her, and then everything goes dark.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the plot thickens >:)
> 
> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	20. XX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no warnings for this chapter. thank you to everyone who's taken the time to read this story! it means a lot <3

-

"MOTHER OF FUCK"

"Chaewon could you at least try to-"

"FUCKING HELL"

"Hyunjin don't you dare-"

Heejin rubs her hand over her face, she didn't think her girlfriend was this overdramatic. She had a damn bulletproof vest on and her armor, she seriously couldn't have gotten hurt that much.

Chaewon on the other hand, she could understand that. The bullet had gone completely through her leg and if Jiwoo hadn't landed fast enough, Chaewon would probably be in an infirmary attached to blood bags. She started waking up a couple of minutes after Heejin got Hyunjin to sit up properly, but she passed back out from the pain of her wound. Lucky for her, Heejin knew a thing or two about gunshot wounds and stopped the bleeding.

"Make it stop, please make it stop", Heejin almost screams when Hyunjin’s grip on her hand tightens even more, she didn't think she was this strong either.

"Dude quit your whining, I only have two more latches and it'll be off", Jiwoo smacks the back of Hyunjin’s head and returns to her task; pulling Hyunjin's armor off without bruising her ribs even more.

Heejin was scared that the bullet had gone through both plates because of how close range it was, but by some miracle, it only got to the top layer of the vest. It was still enough to force to send her flying back into the truck, it almost gave Heejin a heart attack and she didn't even realize she had rushed to her side until the truck sped off.

With Hyejoo inside of it.

She just feels so god damn stupid, and horrible, and like a failure and all those horrible things. She let her best friend down, her sister, the one person in the world besides Hyunjin and Yeojin and Vivi that she loves. And there's no telling when she'll get her back, or if she even will get her back. She managed to get a tracking device on the back of the truck, but it was quick and messy and with her luck, it's already fallen off and in the middle of nowhere.

It hasn't completely gotten to her head yet though. Sure, she's come to terms with the fact that she messed up really bad and managed to lose her sister, but the fact that she could be dead hasn't gotten to her yet. That's the only reason she hasn't broken down yet, the only reason she's able to stay focused on Hyunjin.

There's a part of her that believes she'll get Hyejoo back. That Haseul will come up with some grand plan to get her back and take Atlas down along with it. But it's a very small part of her, it's the part that has faith in Sentinel and refuses to remember everything that Atlas had done.

But the part of her that knows Hyejoo will most likely be dead by the time they get to her is overpowering and she doesn't know if she'll be able to make it through the day without realizing that.

-

"How are you feeling?"

"Fine, besides my chest feeling a little bruised"

"Well, your tests came back negative to any serious damage, I'll give you some medication to speed up the healing process for your ribs and you can be on your way. I recommend you take it lightly though, nothing too serious for at least the next two days"

"You got it Doc, thank you"

Hyunjin sighs heavily, sliding off the bed with the pill bottle in her hand. Jiwoo had to fly her and Chaewon back to EDEN, while Jungeun and Heejin took over getting the trucks to the new facility. She couldn't imagine what Heejin was feeling, Hyejoo was now missing and there was no way of telling where that guy took her. He had to be Atlas though, rebel groups wouldn't want anything to do with Sentinel military personnel.

Hyunjin shakes her head, not really wanting to think about anything but resting right now.

"How is Chaewon doing?" She asks the doctor before he has a chance to disappear.

"She's out of surgery and resting right now, luckily the bullet didn't get anything important and she's not paralyzed anywhere. She's definitely not gonna be able to be out in the field for a while though", he says with an apologetic smile.

"Alright, thanks"

She makes her way out of the infirmary and back to the EDEN wing, which is oddly quiet, but then she remembers that everyone is either resting or out helping pack up. Just as she's about to start heading to her unit, Haseul's voice echoes through the halls out of the intercoms.

"All EDEN agents currently not working please report to the conference room as immediately, I repeat, all EDEN agents currently not working please report to the conference room"

Hyunjin groans loudly, turning on her heels and making her way to the conference room down the hall. Soojin appears out of a unit, startling Hyunjin.

"Oh, hey Hyunjin, sorry if I scared you"

"Hey Soojin, it's cool. It feels like we haven't talked in forever", Hyunjin says with a chuckle.

"Yeah, that's partly my fault. I haven't been in the best mental position", Hyunjin now notices the dull tone in Soojin's voice.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, well not really right now but I will be soon. Everything's just really been taking a toll on me lately"

"Hah, tell me about it"

They finally round the corner to the conference room where most of the team is already sitting down and conversing,

"Alright everyone, I don't know if you've heard but Hyejoo has been taken from us from an unknown source. Chaewon is injured and won't be able to help with this situation. Lucky for us, Heejin attached a tracker on the back of the truck before it got away. We've been tracking it and it's heading towards Texas, which is some serious Atlas territory. Honestly, we don't know how to go about this, so we need everyone's help with this"

"What would they want with Hyejoo? And why all of a sudden?" Jiyoon asks from the front of the room.

"I don't know, none of us know. It seemed to be easier while everyone was frantic and moving"

"So, what do we do?"

Haseul shakes her head, "I don't know"

"We take the fight to them"

All heads turn to the back of the room where Hyunjin is standing. She puts on her best commanding face and lifts her chin.

"We take the fight to them. This war has to end now. For 7 years we've fought and fought, too many people have died and too many people have sacrificed their lives to this war. It's time Atlas goes down, and anyone who sides with them. It's time we end this war and start rebuilding humanity as a whole. Even if we die trying"

-

It's cold. Dark. The air is wet. She can feel water dripping down from the ceiling onto her face. The sensation of the freezing water rolling down her cheeks slowly wakes her up. It takes a moment, but soon her eyes adjust to the dimly lit room.

It's stone. A small, circular room with a metal door opposite of her. A singular light falls from the ceiling, doing nothing to illuminate the room. She can feel something restricting her, her eyes trailing slowly up from the ground, along her legs, her torso, and then to her arms that are being held to the wall by metal shackles. She doesn't notice the numbness in her shoulders until she sees that there's nothing keeping her upright, she's hanging freely from the shackles and it hurts.

"Fuck"

She picks her feet up, slowly sliding them from against the wall until she's standing, trying to put less stress on her shoulders and back. She doesn't remember how she got here, doesn't remember anything except seeing a bullet fly into Chaewon's leg and then getting knocked out.

So, there's really only one explanation.

She was captured, her girlfriend is either dead or extremely injured, EDEN has no idea where she is, and she's being held by a hostile rebel group or Atlas. Atlas seems more probable though.

It's not until she starts thinking that she starts to panic. Because how the hell did this happen? How the hell did EDEN not catch an undercover Atlas agent, and how the hell did they let them get into the civilian trucks?

"Hello?" She tries, which is probably a really bad mistake because that's how everyone dies in the movies.

Her panic turns into adrenaline, and she tries everything possible to get out of the shackles. They're bolted to the wall and skintight, if she tries to wriggle her wrists anymore, she'll probably end up with cuts everywhere on her wrists.

"I wouldn't try to do that if I were you, you're gonna want to save your energy for what we have planned for you"

Her blood runs cold. She knows that voice.

He laughs, cold and evil, "Yes, that's right. Long time no see Hyejoo. I imagine you're very shocked right now"

The metal door swings open, bright light shadowing the face of the large figure walking towards her. It's not until he gets a few feet away from her that she can see his squared jaw, his messy stubble, those dark, empty eyes, crooked smile, and the large scar on his forehead, caused by a bullet.

"Hansol?"

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the last chapter with all the soft stuff, it only gets really sad and heavy after this :/ I keep my happy ending promise though, only 5 more chapters to go!
> 
> You can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	21. XXI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here's where the heavy stuff is going to start. 
> 
> TW/CW /// "sexual" content, physical and psychological torture, panic attacks, graphic violence. If the torture stuff isn't for you then I suggest skipping everything past the 2Jin scene. If not, please be careful anyway. I never wrote the torture scenes because this used to be a collab fic, but I made it less graphic and terrible in general for easier reading and also because it's not really my cup of tea either. 
> 
> anyway, hope you enjoy and as always thank you so much for reading and supporting!!

-

_"Heejin!"_

_"Heejin help me!"_

_"Please! Do something!"_

_She opens her eyes, and the world is burning. Flames engulf her but there's no heat. She can see her sister screaming, reaching out for her. There's blood dripping down the side of her head, just like there was when she last saw her._

_"Heejin please!"_

_Her eyes are boring into her own brown ones, pain written all over her face as more and more blood starts coming out of random places in her body._

_The flames cease suddenly and Hyejoo falls to the ground, Heejin rushes to her side even though she knows it's too late. There's nothing she can do._

_And when she looks up there's more looking at her. There's Hansol, there's Yeojin, and Vivi. Hyejoo disappears from her arms and turns to a black cloud, floating up and forming her again but standing at the group in front of her._

_"Save me Heejin, save us"_

-

Heejin's eyes open slowly. It's almost dark, she can tell by the way the light from the hallway is slowly making its way through the crack in her door.

She doesn't consider it a nightmare.

Yes, she hates seeing Hansol there like that, and she definitely didn't like the way Hyejoo just died in her arms, but if anything, it's an eye-opening experience. She needs to do everything she can to get her sister back, and she needs to forget about Hansol.

There are things in the world that people never forget. Heejin will never forget the first talent show she won, when she was only 3 feet tall and just starting to love singing. She'll never forget her first day of high school and how she was practically cherished as a freshman. And she'll never forget the way Hyunjin's eyes coaxed her out of pulling the trigger of her gun when she first saw her.

But there are some things that need to be forgotten, and Heejin is ready to forget.

So, she does. She pulls the sheets back from her bed, standing up slowly and stretching her body before she pulls on an outfit from her dresser. She swings open her door, looking down the hall to see some of the unit doors open. She can hear some of the girls talking in one of the rooms, but she doesn't know which one.

"Well good afternoon sleeping beauty", Sooyoung’s voice startles her from behind.

"Hey Soo, where is everyone?"

"Everywhere. Most of them are still in the conference room trying to figure out a plan but we've broken off to get some rest", she starts walking down the hall, Heejin following suit.

"Where's Hyunjin?"

"Conference room, I think. That's where she was when Jinsol and I called it a day"

"Have they gotten anywhere with a plan?"

"Last I heard they had it narrowed down to like three or four ideas", Sooyoung shrugs, stopping at Jinsol’s unit, "If she's not in there she's in her unit or in the armory"

"Alright, thanks", Heejin smiles and starts making her way down to the conference room, finding the door wide open and many raised voices going back and forth.

When Heejin looks inside, she was not expecting what she saw at all.

There was paper strewn everywhere. And by everywhere, she means it was literally all over the tables and the floor, and even a few pieces were stuck in the ceiling somehow. Jaehee and Soojin had their hands laying on a table, Yeojin was practically covered in stacks of paper, and Haseul, Chaewon, Minkyung, and Vivi were yelling at each other simultaneously.

From what Heejin could make out, they were arguing over a bomb, something about a giant truck, and an airstrike.

"Hey", Heejin tries to get their attention, but only Yeojin looks at her with an exasperated look.

"Hey!" She tries again, this time Soojin and Jaehee slowly lifting their heads to look at her.

Heejin sighs, marching up to the table where the four were at, " _HEY_ "

Vivi and Minkyung flinch back, Chaewon practically falls back in her chair, and Haseul whips around to throw a punch at Heejin but she quickly catches it with her hand.

"You're gonna wake the entire block if you keep yelling like this, what the hell is going on?"

Haseul clears her throat, quickly removing her hand to straighten out her uniform, "Uh well, we were arguing over the best way to go about this mission and I guess we didn't realize how out of hand we were getting"

Heejin's face turns to a glare, "Yeah, obviously. As much as I would love to help figure this plan out to save my sister, I think everyone needs to call it a night. It's fairly early, so if we go to sleep now, I think we can get started early and get a plan finished by tomorrow night. Does that sound good?"

No one really replies, just nod their heads and start making their way out the door.

"Has anyone seen Hyunjin?" Heejin asks before everyone makes it out the door.

"She left to go shower 15 minutes ago", Haseul yells back, rounding the corner to go back to her unit.

Heejin sighs loudly, trudging out of the room and back down the hall. She quickly runs up the four flights of stairs and down the many halls to get to the showers. She can hear the shower running, and when she steps inside, she can see that no one else is in there besides Hyunjin.

A smile stretches across her face as she quietly shuts the door to the room. She treads lightly, even though the sound of the water hitting the floor was loud enough to cover her footsteps. When she reaches the last stall she stops, not really knowing what to do now.

The last time they were in there together Hyunjin had told her that she loved her, and Heejin didn’t get the chance to say anything back as they were pulled back to their duties.

Not to mention the fact that she's thought about…doing things…with Hyunjin, maybe thought about it a little too much at very wrong times but still. She's thought about it and she doesn't really know how to go about asking Hyunjin if they're on the same page. They've showered together a couple of times though, but they’ve never gone more than lingering hands and heated making out.

And yeah, they haven't been together for a very long time at all, but their relationship wasn't exactly a normal one. Nothing during the war was ever really normal.

But did she really want to do this? Of course, she'd been dreaming of it the second she met her really. But was she rushing it because of the war? She didn't feel like she was. And maybe it was just coincidence that they were gonna have to go on a very dangerous mission in a few days, but still.

Heejin doesn't know how long she's been standing there, and since Hyunjin was already in here a while before, she makes the quick decision to strip her clothes and hang them near Hyunjin’s in the opposite stall.

She takes one last deep breath before pushing past the curtains. Hyunjin has always managed to take her breath away, no matter what the situation is. But at that moment, Heejin felt like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs. The water running down Hyunjin’s back was mesmerizing, and so was the way the muscles in her back and arms moved as she massaged shampoo out of her hair. And to Heejin, Hyunjin had the best body in the entire world, and the definition in her legs was really not helping the breathing situation going on.

After just looking at her for what seems like forever, she gains the courage to step behind her and slither her arms around her girlfriend, breathing in the scent that her shampoo brings.

Hyunjin lets out a yelp that causes Heejin to chuckle, but relaxes as soon as she realizes who it is. They stand there for a while under the stream of the water, just taking each other in. It's not until the water starts turning cold that Hyunjin turns around in Heejin's arms and smiles.

"You should probably wash up before the water turns to icicles", she says with a smile.

Heejin chuckles, "Well if you insist"

"Oh but I do", they both laugh at Hyunjin's terrible mocking.

Heejin starts reaching for the shampoo behind Hyunjin, but her girlfriends’ hand quickly stops her.

"Let me"

Heejin raises an eyebrow but retracts her hand anyway, turning around and allowing Hyunjin to lather her head. Her fingers work through her head, massaging her scalp and the top of her neck. Heejin feels blissful, she feels like Hyunjin must have magic hands or something because she feels like she could fall asleep right there in the shower. She doesn't even notice that she's done with her hair until Hyunjin's hands start running down her arms and her back, rubbing small circles where she goes. Heejin turns around so Hyunjin can get her front side, but the girls demeanor changes.

"Uhm", she stutters, "Do you want me to- I mean, can I- uh-"

"Yes, Hyunjin, you can", Heejin chuckles, watching her girlfriend's face turn into a nervous laugh.

"Right, okay, so uh", Hyunjin nervously reaches for more soap and hesitantly runs her hands along Heejin's shoulders.

"Hyunjin", she lifts her chin up with her finger, "It's okay"

She plants a lingering kiss on Hyunjin’s lips, trying to reassure her that it is indeed, very, okay. Hyunjin smiles, her mood finally changing to a more confident one as her hands run lower over Heejin's front side. Heejin has a hard time not letting out a low moan when her hands massage her breasts. Hyunjin knows, a smirk washing over her face shows that. Her hands start moving lower, massaging over her strong abs and back down her backside, skillful hands slowly massaging the muscles in her butt.

"Hyunjin", Heejin says with a slight loss of breath, her lips attaching to Hyunjin's neck and collar bones.

A low moan escapes Hyunjin’s lips, her hands moving back up to trail just over Heejin's hip bones. Heejin wraps her arms around Hyunjin's shoulders, smashing their lips together. They both sigh, feeling as if they haven't really kissed in forever.

The kiss quickly turns heated, Heejin pushes Hyunjin to the wall of the stall and unconsciously slides her thigh between Hyunjin's legs. She doesn't realize she has until a moan comes out of her lips, her grip on Heejin's hips tightening. A low burn starts in Heejin's stomach at the sensation of Hyunjin moaning into her own mouth. She takes the opportunity to trace her tongue along Hyunjin’s lower lip, almost instantly gaining access and fighting for dominance with the soldier.

"Heejin, wait", she stops instantly, pulling back in fear. She knew she shouldn't have done this; she should've talked to Hyunjin.

"I'm sorry, shit, I shouldn't have- fuck I’m so sorry", Heejin starts, but Hyunjin quickly pressed her lips to shut her up.

"Not here", she whispers simply, her hands teasingly trailing back down Heejin's stomach and to her thighs.

"Oh, right okay, yep, not here, let's go"

-

Okay, so Hyunjin was nervous.

She didn't really know why- well, of course she knew why, but still. She didn't know if it was more not having done anything with anyone in a while, or if it was because it's Heejin. Or both. Probably both.

Still, she hadn't done anything remotely sexual in a long time with someone, so her skills were probably not up to date.

Or…something like that.

But that was beside the point, this was Heejin she was talking about. Like sure, she'd thought about doing this with Heejin plenty of times and she's been wanting to talk to her about it for a while now, but she was still nervous. What if Heejin didn't like it? Or maybe Hyunjin wasn't good enough?

She couldn't really back out now, well she could but she doesn't really want to because Heejin is swishing her hips in a very exaggerated way as they start walking to Heejin's unit.

Lucky for them, no one was in the hall to question the fact that they were wearing nothing but towels, or why both of their faces were flushed.

Hyunjin didn't start getting seriously nervous until they were both inside the unit.

Alone.

With the door closed.

And Heejin completely naked in front of her.

"Hyunjin?" Her head flies up to Heejin's eyes, "This isn't an art museum ya know? You don't have to just look, you can touch too"

Hyunjin raises an eyebrow at that, chuckling nervously.

Heejin also raises an eyebrow, "You know we don't have to do this if you don't want to"

Hyunjin starts stuttering, "What? No, no that's not what I was, no I do it's just-"

"Just what?"

She struggles to find words, "Uh, well, I just, I haven't really done anything, in a long time...so"

"So, you're saying you're not ready or? Cause seriously Hyunjin, we don't have to-"

"Okay no, I’m just gonna stop you right there"

With whatever courage she has, she drops the towel from her body and walks towards Heejin, her hands finding her hips as she crashes their lips together. Heejin is slightly taken off guard but quickly regains herself, her arms finding their way around Hyunjin’s neck.

It gets heated fairly quickly, which was kind of expected because they're both standing there naked with a room to themselves.

Hyunjin thinks she's totally in control and about to speed things up, well, that is until Heejin turns them around and pushed Hyunjin into her bed.

"Okay, wasn't expecting that one at all", Hyunjin mumbles, but she's not really complaining.

She watches Heejin crawl over her with a face that is seriously making her feel some things. Her eyes are focused on Hyunjin's lips and her mouth slightly parted, it takes everything inside of Hyunjin to not take her right then and there. Instead, she lets Heejin attach her lips to her neck, managing to get a low moan out of her.

"If you want me to stop-", Heejin starts but Hyunjin quickly interrupts.

"I don't"

Heejin stares at her for a moment, trailing her eyes all over her face, looking for any sign of distress.

She smiles softly when she finds none, pressing a chaste kiss to Hyunjin’s waiting lips.

When Heejin finally pulls away, Hyunjin grabs the sheets beneath her in her hands and prepares herself for the best night of her life.

-

Hyejoo knew she had information that Atlas wanted pertaining to Sentinel and EDEN, so there was no way Atlas would allow them to kill her. However, the same knowledge that was keeping her alive was most likely going to bring her great pain sometime in the near future. She was sure that Chaewon was coming for her, so, she just had to stick it out until then.

_Do it for Chaewon._

As if on cue, Hyejoo could hear a door opening and closing before the hood was pulled from her head and earplugs were removed from her ears. Standing there was someone she’d never expected to see again.

“Colonel Amber,” Hyejoo spat.

“Son Hyejoo,” the Colonel said in an amused tone.

Colonel Amber had been Hyejoo’s supervisor throughout her time with Atlas and the two had never gotten along well. The Colonel had always seemed borderline insane and scared the shit out of Yeojin the first time they met. When Hyejoo escaped the Atlas base with Vivi, Heejin, and Yeojin, Colonel Amber was the last person she saw. After all that time she’d spent running to escape her, here she was, about to pry information from Hyejoo in any way she can.

As far as Hyejoo could see, there wasn’t anything in the room except for herself, the chair she was strapped to, an empty table, and the Colonel. There didn’t seem to be much of anything that Colonel Amber could really hurt her with.

_Maybe this will be easy_ , she told herself to keep her spirits up. Though she knew full and well that this wasn’t going to be easy.

"Where is Hansol?" Hyejoo asks before the Colonel has a chance to speak.

"Elsewhere, don't worry, you won't be seeing him again any time soon"

Hyejoo glares at Colonel Amber, knowing that there's more to it than that. With her luck, Hansol will probably be the one torturing her until Sentinel comes to get her.

“You have some information I want,” the Colonel starts by stating the obvious. “Now, you can tell me what I need to know from you, and you can go on your merry way, or you could make this difficult and make me have to hurt you.” The Colonel moved so that she was standing in front of Hyejoo and got in her face. “You wouldn’t want that, would you?”

Hyejoo remained silent, refusing to say anything and satisfy Colonel Amber.

“Silent, eh?”

A loud smack could be heard throughout the room as the Colonel backhanded the brunette strapped to the chair.

“It’s okay, I’ll get you to talk.” The Colonel leaned down to whisper in Hyejoo’s ear. “I do know the best way to hurt you after all.”

With those final words, Colonel Amber left the room, leaving Hyejoo to her own devices. She was beginning to become nervous thinking about the horrors that were in store for her. Atlas knew her biggest and greatest fears. Colonel Amber could manipulate her in ways that no one else could, and the thought of that was terrifying. More than anything, though, Hyejoo was afraid of herself.

Spilling any of the information she had on Sentinel could lead to bad things for her, and worse things for Sentinel. She may lose the trust of everyone she holds dear because she wasn’t strong enough. There was also the possibility that Yeojin, Heejin, and Vivi could be seen as traitors as well. Those two things and the thought of Chaewon possibly leaving her were what she decided was going to keep her grounded.

_Last until Chaewon comes for you._

After a few more minutes of sitting in silence, Colonel Amber came in with an assortment of knives and a black duffle bag. Hyejoo was almost relieved to just see the knives. She knew it was going to get worse, but for now, a few cuts were nothing. She’d suffered much worse in previous battles for Atlas and was used to it by now. Even the sound of Colonel Amber sharpening the knives bugged her more than the idea of going through a cutting session did.

“I figured we could start off easy,” the Colonel explained. “Maybe you’ll change your mind before we get to the really… brutal stuff.”

Colonel Amber made her way over to the empty table and put the knife sharpener down next to the duffle bag.

“You know, you’re not as valuable as you think you are.”

This catches Hyejoo’s interest since she knows she has information they want and she was the only one they captured, wasn’t she?

“We managed to get another one of you Sentinel scum into the base. That blonde one, Chaewon, I think her name is?”

Hyejoo’s heart dropped and she visibly paled, much to the liking of the Colonel. They couldn’t have captured Chaewon, she got away. She had to have escaped with Hyunjin. Chaewon was safe.

“I’m sure you’ll want her to be safe, right? I mean, you are lovers after all.”

A wicked grin spread across the Colonel’s face as Hyejoo’s heart broke in front of her.

“It’s a shame she’s being subject to much worse tortures than you are. She got thrown in a room with General Jimin, and you know how she gets.”

Hyejoo wasn’t sure what to think. Chaewon was hurting and it was all Hyejoo’s fault. If she’d just stayed in that hospital room instead of running after her girlfriend, none of this would have happened. She hoped that she and Chaewon could stick it out until help arrived for the two of them.

Suddenly, screams could be heard from the room next door and Hyejoo knew it had to be Chaewon.

“No,” she whispered. “No! Don’t hurt her!”

She struggled against the straps that held her to her chair in a pitiful attempt to escape and save her girlfriend from days of endless pain. Colonel Amber just laughed at her.

“Do you really think you can save her?” the Colonel asked.

Hyejoo stopped struggling and sunk down into her chair. The Colonel was right; she couldn’t save Chaewon even if she tried. That would most likely get them both killed.

“Now, let’s get back to where we were, shall we?” Colonel Amber said, raising the small tactical knife in her hands to Hyejoo’s right jawline.

She pressed down and slowly slid the knife down the length of Hyejoo’s jaw, causing the brunette to clench her teeth in an attempt not to scream out in pain. The woman began laughing again upon seeing Hyejoo in pain.

“I’m sorry, does that hurt?” she taunted as she moved the knife to cut Hyejoo’s shirt off in order to expose more skin for her to cut.

For several hours, Colonel Amber taunted and cut Hyejoo until there was nowhere else to cut, going back and forth to the duffle bag for different knives as she went. The Colonel wasn’t satisfied, however, because the most she earned from the torture subject were whimpers and a few tears. She wanted to hear the brunette’s pained screams, so she went back over to her black duffle bag on the table and pulled out a large bottle of rubbing alcohol.

“Why don’t we clean you up a bit?”

The Colonel unscrewed the cap to the bottle and removed the seal that showed the bottle was brand new. Hyejoo was dreading what was to come as the Colonel approached her with that evil smile on her face. She brought the bottle above her victim’s head and began pouring the contents out. The clear liquid traveled down Hyejoo’s body and the girl cried out as it seeped into her cuts.

Colonel Amber continued pouring the rubbing alcohol around the soldier’s body until the bottle was empty. She dropped the empty bottle and returned to the black duffle bag on the metal table, grabbing several packages of quick clotting gauze. The packages of gauze were opened and placed over the various cuts on Hyejoo’s body to stop them from bleeding. Patches of skin were burned from the reaction between the chemicals and her blood, earning the screams the Colonel wanted from the brunette torture subject.

“There, all better.” Taking a step back, the Colonel examined the work she’d done on Hyejoo. “Changed your mind yet?”

Again, Hyejoo was silent.

“Hm, that's what I thought. Shame"

All Hyejoo could do was take a deep breath and prepare herself for what was to come next.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	22. XXII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T/CW/// torture, this chapter is v tense I guess I would say so just be cautious at those parts

-

"I'm telling you, I don't think this is a good idea"

_"No one thought this was a good idea, don’t you think we'd rather be at base than risking our lives for a very dangerous scouting mission?"_

"Oh, shut up"

_"You're the one who started talking!"_

_"Both of you shut up!"_

Hyunjin snaps, sending a warning glare to Jiyoon and Yeojin as they trudge deeper into the forest.

The tracker from the truck had finally stopped outside Austin last night, Haseul and Minkyung didn't even hesitate to send the three out to go scout around the second everyone woke up. Now it's dark, and Hyunjin feels like no matter how intense she puts her night vision on, she can't see a damn thing. It's quite literally pitch black, which is extremely unsettling considering the circumstances. But this was for Hyejoo, and this was for Heejin, who was creating a plan back at EDEN as she spoke.

"How long have we been walking?" Yeojin whines.

_"3 miles, there's only another half to go before we get to the edge of the forest"_

"Okay well, don't you think we should make a better approach than this? Instead of, ya know, walking straight down the cleared path to wherever the hell we're going? They're smart enough to plant motion trackers and cameras", Yeojin states matter of factly to Hyunjin.

But the General simply holds up a low glowing device from her wrist, _"Don’t you think I thought of that before we put our lives on the line?"_

Yeojin is silent for a second, "Touché"

-

“That is literally the stupidest plan ever!”

“Can everyone just calm down please?”

“Chaewon I swear to god, I don't care if you're crippled, I will deck you right in the face”

“Oh my god?”

“Don’t you dare jab me with that crutch, I'm warning you”

“Stop it, you asshat!”

“Alright, I warned you, Park Chaewon!”

Haseul and Minkyung have been trying to calm everyone down for five minutes and have had no luck at all.

Heejin is sitting in the back corner of the room with Jiwoo, both of them watching their team argue over how to go about planning their attack. She hasn't really been paying that much attention, all she's heard was a plan with a bomb, one with a really big plane, or a stealth mission which she really isn't against. But no one can seem to agree on one plan.

Heejin feels Jiwoo sigh next to her, watching curiously as she stands up and walks to the front of the conference room and pulls out her phone. She covers her ears, Heejin following quickly, and presses something on her screen that sends out a very unpleasant siren sound that causes the entire room to go quiet and cover their ears.

"Split up into different groups, get with whoever agrees with you on what plans to make, and make a debate. I need the pros and cons of each plan, and why you think it's the best one. You have three hours. Go!"

Heejin raises an eyebrow at the authority in Jiwoo's voice, even Haseul and Minkyung are stunned in silence. Everyone else, not so much. She guesses they've had encounters with Jiwoo's commanding side.

It takes a couple of minutes of very crowded shuffling, but eventually, everyone settles into 3 groups based on what plan they think is the best. Everyone except Haseul and Minkyung.

"Why aren't you two splitting up?" Heejin asks curiously.

"We don't care how we get Hyejoo back, we just care that she gets back in one peace and that Atlas goes down as we leave", Haseul says plainly.

"So, if I suggested that we challenge whoever is in charge of Atlas to an arm-wrestling match, you'd agree to it?" Heejin tries at lightening the mood a little.

Minkyung chuckles, "We'd tell you to make it work, but only as a last resort"

"Good to know"

-

“Remember how you had to fight someone on initiation day to see how you’ve improved in hand-to-hand combat?”

Colonel Amber pulled her arm back and punched Hyejoo in the face.

“You went up against General Jimin”

Another punch to the face.

“I never expected you, of all people, to excel in hand to hand. I’d like to see how you do against me.”

The Colonel kicked Hyejoo in the stomach, sending her and the chair onto their backs before walking over to untie the girl. She rolled out of the chair and weakly pushed herself off the floor into a fighting stance.

They circled around each other for a few moments before Hyejoo made a well-placed strike at the Colonel’s solar plexus. The Colonel doubled over, having lost her breath from the punch.

"Good move, Son," Colonel Amber wheezed out. However, she was still laughing.

Without warning, the Colonel stood up and kicked Hyejoo in the chest as if she were trying to burst through a locked door, sending the soldier flying backward. Her head hit the wall behind her with a loud thud, and she crumpled to the floor. Before she could even stand up to fight again, the Colonel was already there to use her head as a soccer ball. She felt blood coming from her mouth, nose, and now the back of her head, as well as the cuts that had previously been made on her body.

The Colonel took a step back and laughed at how haphazard Hyejoo's nose looked.

"Won't be picking up any girls with a face like that, that's for sure."

She bent down and picked Hyejoo up by the collar of her shirt, pinning her to the wall. A couple of punches were thrown into Hyejoo's gut and a foot met her right knee, dislocating it. Hyejoo let out cries of agony, not even bothering to hold it back anymore.

"Ah, yes, that's what I wanted to hear."

Hyejoo was then twirled around so that her front was pressed up against the wall. Her left arm was brought behind her back at a very painful angle to dislocate both her elbow and shoulder. The Colonel released Hyejoo's arm and let her crumple to the floor in a heap.

"Ready to tell me yet?" she asked in a sickeningly sweet voice.

Hyejoo shook her head yet again.

Colonel Amber simply shrugged and walked back over to the duffel back to retrieve a whip, a long metal rod, and some rope. She placed the metal rod in its designated spot on the wall before dragging Hyejoo over to it. Hyejoo hung onto the bar as her wrists were tied to it, whimpering slightly at the thought of what was to come. Her hair was moved so that her back was completely bare.

_Just hold on until they can get to you_ , she repeated in her head several times.

Seconds later, the crack of the whip could be heard and Hyejoo could feel the skin being ripped off of her back. Again and again, the cracking noise could be heard, and Hyejoo's morale plummeted with each strike to her back. She started sobbing as the barrage continued on her raw and bloodied back. She wanted it to stop more than anything.

There was a pause in the attack and Hyejoo unintentionally let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t see what Colonel Amber was doing, but she could hear her leave the room. Her position was incredibly uncomfortable on the joints of her arm and leg that hadn’t been dislocated while she was being beaten. She wondered how long they would leave her hanging like that.

Colonel Amber didn’t come back for quite some time. To Hyejoo it had felt as if she had been gone for days, but she knew that couldn’t have been true. Her perception of time wasn’t currently at its peak, being held captive in a windowless room and all.

“Tell me what Sentinel has planned”, The Colonel sounded very impatient.

“You wish.” Hyejoo was slightly surprised by the gravelly sound that was present in her voice from the screaming and lack of use for an extended amount of time. It almost reminded her of Heejin.

The Colonel smiled that awful smile of hers. “I think it’s time we amped things up a bit.”

-

"Look! I see lights up ahead?"

_"Where?"_

"Through the trees, to the right"

_"Oh shit, you're right. Come on, let's pick up the pace and find a good spot to scout"_

Hyunjin's legs start moving faster, so Yeojin picks up her pace to keep up with her commanding officer.

She was extremely surprised when Heejin and Vivi let her come on this mission, she had volunteered on a whim for being bored out of her mind at security. She'd done nothing but desk work, and since the civilians were all gone and moved there was nothing besides the armory and hanger to look after.

Besides that, she'd done absolutely nothing. She'd gotten a taste of how EDEN trained and battled at Mobius and when they were escaping, and she really wanted to get out on the field to prove how she could benefit the team. How she was going to do that on a scouting mission, she doesn't really know. She just knows she's ready to kick some Atlas ass already.

_"Yeojin, drop off to the right into the woods. There are some detectors and cameras up ahead at a gate and I’m gonna get as close as I can. Jiyoon, drop off to the left. I need you both up in the trees, just in case. And turn on your Exo Ability, I changed it to thermal and night vision camouflage so no one can see you",_ Hyunjin whispers lowly, her voice sounding almost robotic in Yeojin's earpiece.

Jiyoon drops off almost immediately, but Yeojin stops in her tracks.

"What if you set something off? The base is only half a mile up ahead, we won't be able to run away fast enough"

_"I have a plan, trust me"_

Yeojin huffs out a breath but runs into the tree line anyway, finding a climbable tree a couple of feet away. She looks to the other side of the woods and flips to thermal to try and see how far Jiyoon had moved up in the trees, but Hyunjin wasn't kidding when she said thermal vision wouldn't work. She looks down at her arms, surprised that she's not even visible to herself.

"How far up do you want me to move to the gate?" Yeojin asks Hyunjin.

_"Just don't get too close, there are trackers all over. I'll send you both the tech so you can see"_

Yeojin's wrist lights up lowly and illuminates a tiny map, tons of red dots popping up the closer she gets to the gate. She gets about 30 feet from the gate before she stops, not wanting to risk setting anything off. Instead, she plops down on a strong branch, pulls out her rifle, and watches Hyunjin.

The general pulls her rifle out, slowly walking up to the gate as she starts tapping at the hologram illuminating from her wrist. Yeojin cocks her head in curiosity when she takes her wrist and points it towards the gate and around it, a yellow light coming from her armor.

"What in the hell", she whispers to herself, her curiosity growing even more when the red dots on her map disappear.

_"Alright, the base is about three-fourths of a mile ahead. This gate wraps around the whole thing, it's all one big thing. If you touch it, I'm sure it'll set something off. I glitched the sensors and cameras long enough for us to get over, but there's bound to be patrols on their way to check it out"_

_"So what do we do?"_ Jiyoon asks.

"Uh, well. We jump"

-

"Chaewon"

"Wonniee"

"Chaewonieee"

"CHAEWON"

"FUCK WHAT?"

The already crippled soldier practically falls out of her chair, Heejin snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Are you okay?" Heejin asks, a look of worry on her face.

"Uh, yeah, I’m fine. If anything, I should be asking you if you're okay", she says as Heejin helps her back into her chair.

"I'll be fine when Hyejoo gets back-"

Chaewon cuts her off, "If she gets back"

"She will", Heejin says quickly, "But I know you're taking this hard. So really, are you okay?"

"I’m just her girlfriend Heejin, you're practically her sister. You're the one who should be asked this kinda stuff", it's not that she's not okay, or that yeah, she's hurting and taking it hard because she has no idea where or what Hyejoo is doing, but she doesn't really want to talk about it for fear of more intruding thoughts coming into her head.

She feels a hand on her shoulder, Heejin's of course.

"Exactly, you're her girlfriend. Never in my life has Hyejoo ever dated or thought of dating anyone. Well, except this one time but it was a dare and she felt so bad that she broke up with the guy like five minutes later but, that's beside the point. Hyejoo loves the hell out of you, and I can tell you feel the exact same way. I've lost people, and yeah, she's my sister but I believe in her and her strength. Plus, I haven't felt some weird physiological disturbance, so I'm 100% sure she's alive. Maybe not perfectly fine, but she's alive and we're gonna get her back"

Chaewon is stunned, she hadn't expected that much to come out of Heejin's mouth, let alone something about Hyejoos life before she came to EDEN. She doesn't really know what to say so she's stuck staring at Heejin with wide eyes.

Heejin's face turns even more worried, "Was that too much? Should I have not said that?"

"No", Chaewon says plainly, but then realizes that it probably didn't make sense, "No, thank you for that"

Heejin sighs happily, but her smile quickly falls again as Chaewon gets out of her seat with a distant look in her face.

"Chaewon?"

"Yeah, yeah just-", she shakes her head, "Excuse me"

She rushes out of the room, her injury willing, and heads towards the elevator up to the units. She doesn't really know where she's going, or why she's going to the units. Her mood had changed so quickly she didn't even realize it until she was alone in the elevator.

She was scared. Really scared. What if Hyejoo wasn't okay? What if she was dead and Heejin just wasn't telling her or Haseul and Minkyung knew something that they weren't telling her?

She hasn't known Hyejoo for that long but fuck, she just loves her so much she can't picture the rest of her life without her.

She doesn't realize how scared she really is until she's in front of unit 12, Hyejoo’s beach sunset door staring right in her face.

She only thinks for a second that this might be a bad idea and reminding herself of Hyejoo is just gonna make things worse. But at this point she doesn't really care. She wants Hyejoo back, she's going to get Hyejoo back. And there was only one way she could think of that was going to give her a chance to actually fight and get her girlfriend back.

So, she doesn't go into Hyejoo's unit.

Instead, she turns around and heads to the infirmary, nothing but determination on her mind.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig: @kimberlylippington


	23. XXIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> C/TW/// Very first scene is a torture scene so skip that if it's not your thing! 
> 
> Only two more chapters to go! Thank you, everyone, for your support and I really hope you've enjoyed it so far. I won't give any details away rn but I'm working on a Star Wars AU that I'm very excited about.

-

"Have you decided to spill yet?"

Silence.

"Just as I thought. Well, you leave me no choice"

Amber began untying Hyejoo from the bar she’d been hanging from and reset her knee back into place. Hyejoo screams, not expecting the sudden intrusion to her broken bones. Turning around, Hyejoo noticed that Colonel Jimin had joined them. Together they took Hyejoo to another room.

This room looked like it was straight from a movie. There was a flat platform that was slightly tilted with straps on it. Wires hung awkwardly from the ceiling, connecting to the platform Hyejoo knew she was about to be strapped to.

Hyejoo was worried about this form of torture more than the others, specifically about her heart issue that Atlas had no idea about. The stress she’d experienced since she’d been here was bad enough, but the electricity would surely fuck her up.

Jimin and Amber pushed her back up against the surface of the cold, metal platform and began strapping her wrists, ankles, midsection, and head down to the platform. They took some of the hanging wires from the ceiling and sticking them to various parts of Hyejoo’s body.

The electrocution started off slow, with questions being asked and the voltage being put into her body low. It was almost more of an annoying buzz in her body than it was a painful torture. As time passed, and Hyejoo wasn’t exactly sure how much, the voltage would increase, and the questions were starting to dwindle. At some point, Hyejoo figured they were really doing this for fun and that a confession would just be a plus.

She doesn't know how long she stays there, electricity practically running through her veins. She does know that it's been at least three days, and she's had no food or water.

She prays harder today, prays that Sentinel has a plan to get her.

-

"So, what you're saying is, we don't have a plan?"

"Hyunjin hasn't come back with anything yet, we don't know what we're up against or what is actually at the base"

"These are times I wish satellites still worked"

Sooyoung rubs her temples roughly, thinking that if she rubbed hard enough, she could force the headache out of her head. She's had no luck the past two hours.

"So what do we do? Just wait for them to get back to us?" Jinsol asks coldly.

"Actually", Haseul says, her back turning to everyone as she displays what looks like a webcam in the large screen at the front of the room, "I managed to get the cams on their helmets working so we have a live stream feed of what they're seeing"

She turns to the table in front of the wall, tapping around it lightly, "Hyunjin? Can you hear me?"

There's a moment of static silence, but eventually, Hyunjin’s soft voice cracks through the speakers in the room, _"Loud and clear Cap, can you see everything clearly?"_

"Well I can't really see anything but a lot of darkness and trees if that's what you mean", Haseul says matter of factly.

_"Oh, right, sorry",_ the camera shifts down to Hyunjin’s wrist where she taps around until the live feed turns to night vision, everything clearer now.

Sooyoung didn't know what she expected to see with the Atlas base, but she definitely wasn't expecting to see so many lights and such a tall wall. It had to be at least 10 stories tall, and there were no ledges around it or anything. Just a plain, flat, cemented wall.

_"I've managed to hijack our cloaks to shift with our movement, as long as we stay still or move very slowly, we're invisible to the naked eye. We're gonna try to scale the wall with grapples, the only entrance is extremely guarded and there's no way we'd be able to get past it, even with the cloaks",_ Hyunjin explains, practically whispering into her mic.

"What are you gonna do once you scale it? It looks like it just goes straight over"

_"We're guessing that it's just flat ground on the other side, so we're probably gonna have to scale the other side as quickly as possible and find a place that isn't being guarded quite as heavily"_

"Did you remember to silence your helmets?" Sooyoung asks abruptly, not wanting them to get caught for something so simple.

_"Yes,_ mom _, I remembered to do that. If I hadn’t, we'd be dead by now"_

Sooyoung relaxes, leaving the rest of the talking to Haseul and Minkyung. She doesn't realize the absence of Heejin until she feels a body sink into the chair next to her, smelling strongly of vanilla.

"What's going on?"

"Haseul got their live cams to work, we don't have a plan and we're trying to get as much intel as possible"

"Which one is Hyunjin’s?"

Sooyoung chuckles, "The middle one"

They both sit and watch as the three shoot their grapples onto the top of the wall, immediately jumping and practically running up the wall. When they reach the top, they don't get an immediate view of the base because there's a space between each side that looks like it's meant for sharpshooting or guard watching, it reminds Sooyoung of the wall back at Mobius. It takes them a minute to unhook their grapples and get themselves situated again, but once they head to the other side, the air grows thick and heavy.

The land is flat, the only buildings farther back to the left and scattered around the middle. But it's not empty, hundreds of tanks and extremely advanced looking war machines are lined up perfectly in the flat dirt. There are even more soldiers walking around, some checking on the machines and some doing drills with their respective teams.

The three are equally as quiet as everyone else, Sooyoung guesses no one knows exactly what to say.

That is until Haseul clears her throats and turns to everyone in the room.

"We need a plan. Pronto"

-

"Chaewon you do realize that what you're doing is extremely dangerous right? You could die, or even worse paralyze yourself"

"How is paralyzing myself worse than dying"

"You're a soldier, you're meant to move around and do things. Being paralyzed would keep you from doing that for the rest of your life. And I’m sure dying means you go wherever you go without the injuries you've sustained so far"

"...Point proven"

Chaewon slides off the examination table, throwing herself into her crutches and walking to the other side of the room where her doctor is.

"But you've also proven my point even further. I'm a soldier, I’m meant to move, and I have to help find Hyejoo some way or another. I can't just sit around watching everyone argue over what they think is the best plan and what isn't. We need to fight, bring some gun power to them instead of waiting. And what about Hyejoo? I can’t just leave her like a sitting duck, they could be torturing her or something for information. Lord knows they wouldn't just welcome her back into the ranks of Atlas!"

Her doctor is silent, her mouth twisted as she thinks.

"Well, this isn't really a 50/50 chance thing. We can do it, the risk is more on the battlefield or wherever you go that can get you hurt again"

"I don't want it as a permanent thing. I just want to help get Hyejoo back, and then I'll come back and do all the therapy you want me to do"

The doctor sighs heavily, "Alright. Let's go get you fitted then"

Chaewon can only half contain her excitement, a large smile plastered on her face as she walks out of the room.

-

Hyunjin, Jiyoon, and Yeojin have been wandering around the base for an hour now, only getting almost caught once. They've gotten past all the tanks and machines and more into the buildings. They're trying to find the room Hyejoo is being held in whilst finding weak points in the base. Everyone has been talking and they've narrowed the plan down to either an inside infiltration or planting a bomb at the middle of the base.

It's a ridiculously large place too, Jinsol guesses that it's their main headquarters. Not that the tanks and extremely large armed force didn't give that away at first. But it's definitely their main source of power, hitting it would put a significant amount of damage on the entire Atlas company. There are no civilians either, which is a huge plus to Jinsol since she likes the idea of a bomb more.

_"We're coming up on older buildings, I think a couple of them have basements judging by the windows near the floor. Hyejoo could be in one of them",_ Hyunjin’s voice shakes Jinsol from her thoughts, her head flinging up to look at the three screens.

Sure enough, the buildings they're looking at are definitely older than the ones closer to the middle of the base. They're made more out of brick and cinder block instead of glass and steel. There's tiny windows near the ground, something that definitely wasn't on the other buildings.

"Are you getting any signals? If they haven't stripped her from her under armor, she should have a locator", Heejin explains, one of the first things she's said out loud today.

Hyunjin’s voice turns disappointed, _"No, I’m not getting anything. I'm sorry"_

"It's fine, just keep looking"

Jinsol turns her attention towards Heejin, trying to determine if it really is fine. There's nothing off about her, besides the fact that she seems exhausted. But everyone is tired, she would expect that. She's got her hair tied up and she's wearing one of Hyunjin’s sweaters and old soccer shorts, only thing different is she's not wearing her pink bracelet and she's biting her nails. Which is obviously her being nervous about finding Hyejoo, Jinsol would be the same way if Sooyoung got captured by an enemy and she didn't know where she was.

_"Holy shit, Hyunjin look",_ all attention turns to the screens where they can see Jiyoon pointing to something in the distance.

Hyunjin's visor zooms in closer to a more lit area in the distance. There are two soldiers carrying - well, more like dragging - someone on the sidewalk to a different building. The more Hyunjin zooms in the more the person looks like Hyejoo, but it barely looks like her. Her hair is in a very loose, messy ponytail, her face is sunken in and there are cuts all over her body. She looks extremely weak, obviously not even strong enough to walk with the soldiers. Her clothing is battered and torn, blood stains cover most of the shirt and there are clear restraint marks on her wrists and ankles.

"Fuck, she's being tortured! Hyunjin you have to get her out of there!" Heejin practically screams, cutting the silence.

"We don't have the resources to do that right now Heejin, I’m sorry", Haseul says for Hyunjin, clearly not happy having to say it though.

"You're kidding! Haseul look at her! They're probably torturing her to no end! What about her heart condition? She could be dying, and they wouldn't know it, we have to get her out of there!" There are tears falling freely down Heejin's face now.

_"Heej",_ Hyunjin’s voice is soft, Jinsol sees Heejin's demeanor change almost immediately, _"We'll get her out. I promise. We just can't today, I’m sorry"_

"There has to be something you can do, make it easier for us to get to her or something?" Her voice is calmer now.

Hyunjin is silent, her visor still fixed on Hyejoo being dragged away into a building slightly smaller than the rest. She zooms back out when they get into the building, her view turning to a very tiny looking Yeojin.

"Hyunjin?" Haseul asks, wanting to know what she's thinking before she goes to do it.

But she doesn't reply, and all of a sudden, she cuts her mic off.

_"Kim Hyunjin"_ , it’s more of a command now, Jinsol grows anxious as she watches Hyunjin and Yeojin exchange in a silent conversation.

They all watch as Hyunjin hands Yeojin what looks like a small locator and what she recognizes as a syringe of stimulant. Jinsol used to have to give those to her new recruits who couldn't keep up with the seniors, or to anyone they rescued that was on the verge of malnutrition and hunger.

Hyunjin's view changes back and forth between the building Hyejoo was taken in to and Yeojin, until the young girl furiously nods, turns her cloak back on, and practically sprints towards the building.

Hyunjin's mic crackles back on, her voice sounding commanding and confident, "Jiyoon and I are going to continue looking around. I gave Yeojin an edible tracker and some stimulant to keep Hyejoo going for three days minimum, it'll give us time to come up with a solid plan without her dying on us and we'll be able to find her easily when we get back"

"It's not what you did I'm worried about Hyunjin, but you sent Yeojin. Are you sure she can do it?"

"It's for her sister, she can do anything if it depends on her life"

-

"In, tracker, syringe, neck, out"

"In, tracker, syringe, neck, out"

"In, tracker, syringe, neck, out"

Yeojin kept repeating the words Hyunjin had said to her over and over again, fearing she might forget once she got to Hyejoo.

She managed to slip inside after a group of soldiers had swung the door open, the only problem was the building was a lot bigger than she imagined it would be. It was divided straight down the middle by a long, dimly lit hall. There were multiple doors on each side, all thick and steel with tiny holes at the top to see inside. There was also a set of stairs that went up and down, Yeojin didn't know where she should start looking.

The other soldiers that had dragged Hyejoo in hadn't come back out yet, so she debated on waiting for them to come back out. But she couldn't just sit and wait, especially if they were torturing her as she waited.

She quickly checks all the room on the first floor, peeping through the tiny slit in the doors but has no luck in finding Hyejoo. She makes her way down the stairs where it's even darker, she has to flip to her night vision to see clearly.

The hall is slightly shorter than the one above, there are only three doors and they're heavily locked and thick. Yeojin can hear voices coming from the room directly in front of her, she sprints over to it and much to her dismay Hyejoo is splayed across the floor with the two soldiers standing over her. She can't make out what they're saying, just that it's pointless to say anything because Hyejoo is very clearly passed out.

And Yeojin is very clearly angry. It breaks her heart to see Hyejoo so beaten and torn, she hasn't seen her like that in years. She knows her sister is strong and that she'll make it through this, but Yeojin can't help but feel a heaviness in her heart. She's never been a person to genuinely wish pain or death upon anyone else, but right now as she watches the two soldiers spit at her she can't help but hope that they end up dead.

Seeing Hyejoo like that brings up a lot of memories for her, she's almost too lost in her thoughts to notice the two soldiers walking back to the door. She quickly backs up and presses herself against the dark wall, holding her breath as the soldiers pass by. She waits until they're up the stairs and she hears the front door open and close to unlatch everything on the door and swing it open.

To her surprise, Hyejoo quickly jumps off the floor and scrambles back to the wall, shielding herself with her arms.

"Please, no more today", her voice is weak and trembly, it breaks Yeojin’s heart even more.

She scrambles to turn her cloak off, taking off her helmet so Hyejoo doesn't think some soldier has come to torture her.

"Hyejoo it's me, Yeojin", she scrambles out, practically sprinting to the wall and taking out the supplies Hyunjin gave her.

"Yeojin? What are you doing here? How'd you get here?" Hyejoos voice is croaky and dry, she obviously hasn't been given any water recently.

"I'm sorry Juju. Shit, I’m so sorry"

"What? Why? You're here"

A single tear rolls down Yeojin’s cheek, "We can't- we can't rescue you today. We didn't think that- that we'd find you or that you'd be here we were just on a stupid scouting mission and-"

"Yeojin", her voice is soft and assuring, "It's okay. I get it. You know where I am now, just please tell me you have a plan"

Yeojin’s face turns down, "Last I heard we couldn't come up with anything solid"

Hyejoo sighs heavily and scoots up closer to the wall, wincing as she does.

"Oh shit, right!"

She pulls the syringe out of her pocket, along with the tracker and a tiny canister of water.

"Here, take this. It's an edible tracker. If you get moved or we can't find you right away when we attack, we can find you with it. And I don't exactly know what's in this, but Hyunjin told me it would hold you up for at least three days", she flicks at the syringe and carefully takes Hyejoos arm, "Something about stimulant and liquid protein or something like that"

Hyejoo is hesitant as the syringe enters her skin, Yeojin tries her hardest to be gentle with her sister since she's so obviously been beaten up.

"What all have they done?" She asks out of curiosity.

"I don't remember to be honest. Just a lot of beating and cutting and shock therapy. I think they even waterboarded me at one point, but I can handle it, don't worry. Just go get a plan started and take down those wretched sons of bitches"

Hyejoo smiles, but it's weak. Yeojin didn't think she could get any sadder, but she does.

"I’m sorry Hyejoo, I really am", she softly hugs her sister, trying to get as much contact as possible before she inevitably has to leave.

"It's okay, I understand. I can hold off. Just be quick okay?"

She nods her head vigorously, quickly standing up and wiping the tears from her face. It takes all the strength in her body to turn around and head back out of the door, knowing that come tomorrow Hyejoo is gonna be alone and being tortured again. She's crying furiously, she doesn't hold back her tears anymore, especially when she hears Hyejoo yell to her.

"I love you Yeojin, go kick some Atlas butt"

-

"It's the only way"

_"No! No, it is not the only way!"_

"We can't get a team inside there's no way-", Haseul starts but Hyunjin snaps at her.

_"There is always a way, Haseul"_

"Hyunjin please-", Heejin tries also but Hyunjin snaps again.

_"NO, no you can't just drop a bomb where all these people are!"_

"No one in there is innocent Hyunjin, I’m living proof of it"

_"Exactly! You were there and you're innocent now and you're fighting against Atlas, you're just proving my point even more"_

Heejin scoffs, "I am nowhere near innocent"

_"Oh please, if you were told there'd be a nuclear bomb coming down on you, you'd plead innocent",_ Hyunjin says mockingly _._

She can't see it, but Heejin's fists clench, "No Hyunjin I wouldn't! I wouldn't because I did terrible things, and I didn't stop them when I could have! Do you think I got those burns just for torture? No, I got them because I killed people. Hundreds of innocent people who didn't deserve any of it. If they told me there'd be a bomb, I'd pray for them to send it faster!”

Hyunjin is shocked, and so is everyone else she can see in the conference room.

She doesn’t really know what to say, Heejin has never told her why she had those marks, and she wasn’t going to push for an answer until she was ready. But the things Heejin did then, they forced her to do that. She’s been told enough about Atlas to know Heejin would never do anything like that willingly.

_“Heejin, I-“_

"No", she cuts her off, pain evident in her voice, "I'm not going to discuss this with you right now. You can stand and tell us that this isn't a good idea, but we outvote you, okay? I'm with this, Atlas did things that they’re going to pay for and I'm not about to lose you to some nuclear war gone wrong right when things are starting to be okay"

She marches out of the room with tears streaming down her face, leaving Hyunjin and everyone else stunned to silence. There's no movement, not for a while. Everyone is just standing there, taking in everything. Hyunjin can feel a tear run down her cheek, she knows she should do something, but what would she say? I'm sorry? For what? What would she be sorry for? Putting other people's lives before hers? She wasn't going to apologize for that, that's just who she is. She's selfless, she doesn't like death or killing or the war. She just wants to survive.

But a part of her knows Heejin is right. The Atlas company being destroyed in the southern part of the country would be worth it. But that's so many people dying, so many deaths on her hands and she doesn't know if she could handle it. She's already killed too many people for her liking, and yeah, war takes sacrifices, but this is a really, really big sacrifice.

And what's it all worth? The company would be taken down, Sentinel could start rebuilding America and the war would technically be over. There'd be no nuclear threats, no more fighting, no more death. Hyunjin could be happy, or at least try to be happy and in a house with Heejin.

Heejin.

God, that's all she thinks about. Heejin this, Heejin that. The soldier has been on her mind 24/7 ever since she laid eyes on her and it's starting to drive her insane. Her beautiful brown eyes, her stupid pink bracelet that she never seems to take off, her deep voice, and everything about her.

Hyunjin would walk through a glass desert to be with Heejin. She'd do anything for her, and maybe she was just overreacting because that's a lot of lives to be rid of but Heejin is too special to her. She didn't even expect to be put through all of this when she went to that Atlas base. She was only expecting to find rubble and no data, not a girlfriend who tried to kill her the first time they saw each other.

It's kind of funny, the way everything was starting to work out. The more Hyunjin thinks about what her life would be like without Heejin the more she starts doubting she'd even be alive. If Heejin hadn't been there when she started remembering Yerim she'd probably still be back at base, locked up in her unit and starving herself. She wouldn't have had the strength to go find Jiwoo and Jungeun, she wouldn't have the strength to even deal with this mission. And here she was, pushing past all of the stress because she just wants to keep Heejin alive.

Hyunjin loves Heejin, really loves her, and the more she thinks about it the more she realizes hundreds of deaths for peace is something she’s going to have to sacrifice. 

And she was definitely not about to end this war on a note like this. They hadn't even talked after their first time, it just happened, and they got right back up the next morning to get back to work. A part of Hyunjin knows that's what is gonna come with being with Heejin during a war, but another part of her wishes they had talked.

"Hyunjin?" Haseul's voice cracks back through her earpiece, shaking her from her thoughts.

_"Requesting pick up",_ she says plainly, not wanting to do this right now, _"Please"_

Jiyoon and Yeojin take that as a sign to grab their grapples back out, the three of them slowly making their way back up and over to the other side.

No words are exchanged for the remainder of the mission. They silently make it through the woods and back to the pickup area where Jiwoo is waiting in her silent helicopter. When Hyunjin slides into the seat next to Jiwoo, who is looking at her expectantly.

"You okay dude?"

Hyunjin sighs, "I'm fine. Let's just go home"

It's the only thing she can say right now.

-

Haseul sits Hyunjin’s team down when they arrive back at EDEN, quickly going over the plan of attack.

Hyunjin is commanding Shadow Squad, the stealth team that will cover Jiyoon’s team as they rescue Hyejoo, who had been moved to the command center as they traveled back.

The plan was to plant the bomb in the basement of the command center, get everyone to a safe distance, and set the bomb off before Atlas could send in their reinforcements.

It was a risky plan, everything about it made Hyunjin feel uneasy, but it was the best they had.

She still didn’t like the idea of setting off a bomb on so many people, but she has no choice.

After Haseul has given them the rundown she sends them off to their units to rest for the morning. They only had 12 hours to rest and get up to travel to Austin.

Hyunjin sighs as she makes her way to her unit, her heart clenching in her chest as she passes by Heejin’s. She knows the girl is going to be upset with her, but at this point, she doesn’t care. She just wants to get some rest with her girlfriend before they have to get up and risk their lives once again.

She stands outside of the unit, contemplating if she should even bother, but the door suddenly swings open and she comes face to face with her lover.

“I’m really not in the mood to-“

“I’m not here to argue”, Hyunjin states plainly.

Heejin twists her mouth in contemplation before a heavy sigh releases itself from her body. A hand pulls her into the unit, closing the door behind them and guiding her to the comfort of Heejin’s bed.

Their bodies hit the mattress at the same time, neither of them speaking as they turn on their sides to face each other. Hyunjin brings a hand up to Heejin’s cheeks, stroking them softly and breathing in her air.

Heejin’s eyes close, one of her hands moving to grip at Hyunjin’s side.

“I love you, Heejin”, Hyunjin whispers, scared she’s going to break the atmosphere if she speaks too loudly.

Heejin smiles at her, a sad, tired smile, but one nonetheless, “I love you, Hyun”

“Everything is gonna be okay, we’re gonna get Hyejoo back and destroy the fuck out of Atlas”

Heejin nods, closing her eyes again and moving so that she’s resting underneath Hyunjin’s chin.

Hyunjin pulls her love closer, closing her eyes and wishing for sleep to take over.

She’s going to need it.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt@ kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	24. XXIIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> General violence in this chapter, these last two are very short but it's the final stretch!

-

"How are we doing, Jiyoon?"

_"I've got the location of Hyejoo, we just need the okay from Hyunjin and Haseul to move in and rescue her"_

"Good, defend your position until further notice. Shadow Squad made it to the upper levels and Haseul pushed up another block from the front"

_"Understood, just let me know when it’s safe to move in"_

Soojin sighs and leans against the wall. Jaehee and Soeun are beside her, along with Jihan and Monday. Their job is to rescue Hyejoo and clear out the lower levels of the command center, then regroup with Shadow Squad and help the bomb squad arm and set in the main hall.

"So, what do we do now?" Jihan asks.

"Defend our position until further notice", Soojin says with a huff.

"Wonderful", Jihan rolls her eyes and pulls her rifle out, "We've got a wave coming from the West doors, I'll set up near the barricade and call shots from there"

"Got it", Soojin replies, following Jihan to the barricades beside the east door.

-

"Assess the situation Hyunjin!"

"Don't you think I'm trying?"

_"I've got a man down! Shit, make that two"_

"Atlas at 11 o'clock, they're tearing us apart General"

"Move to the left flank and get the hell behind something!"

_"General, we have to push forward somehow, we can't just stay here, we'll all die!"_

"Goddammit!"

Hyunjin pops out of her cover, drawing the attention and the bullets of Atlas to the right flank while the team moves to the left. She manages to get a couple of shots in, but she doesn't know if they hit anything.

" _Hyunjin what are you doing?"_

"What I was trained to do!"

Two men lunge at her once she's at melee distance, to which she sidesteps quickly and places two perfectly aimed bullets in the side of their heads. Her Exo suit flashes, and she quickly turns around, pounding her fist into the stomach of another soldier and sending him flying back. She takes down three more, well-placed shots being the end of them as she moves between covers until she's at the door.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Heejin asks her the second the team makes it back to her.

"I'm trying to save what's left of my team, now get behind something"

Sooyoung rolls her eyes, "What are you-"

Before Sooyoung can respond, Hyunjin kicks down the steel door and pulls her rifle up. The flashlight flicks on and reveals nothing but an empty room.

"This is Shadow Squad, we're in position and outside the main hall. It's clear so far, I need Haseul on the line"

Her earpiece cracks for a second before Haseul's voice shouts into her ear, _"Atlas has men posted everywhere. We're having trouble getting through the last few blocks of the front. How are your numbers?"_

Hyunjin can hear the gunfire and shouting through in the background, "I'm down five but we'll be fine, how do you want me to proceed?"

_"We’ve got confirmation that Hyejoo is in the lower levels. Make your way down there as fast as you can, Jiyoon’s squad is going to need backup when the alarms start going off. I don't think they're expecting a stealth team unless the men at the back have already informed them"_

"Understood, I'll keep you updated"

_"Stay alive Hyunjin, we're gonna need you when this is all over"_

"You too Haseul"

Hyunjin turns back to her team, Chaewon pushing to the front until they're face to face.

"Is Hyejoo alive?"

Hyunjin knows Chaewon is still panicking and hurting but all she can is shake her head, "We don't know. Jiyoon’s team have made it inside but they're only in the upper levels of the basement"

Hyunjin can see the disappointment flash behind the blonde’s eyes.

"Let's go get our people back then"

She smiles and nods, "Move in on my mark"

-

_“Phase 3 is complete, we have Hyejoo and will begin making our ascent to the main hall when Shadow Squad gives us the green light”_

_“Understood, please stand by”_

Hyunjin glances back at the squad behind her, giving herself one last moment before they burst into the main hall.

“Shadow Squad is in position. No sign of enemies yet. Jiyoon, you have the yellow light to proceed cautiously”

_“Aye, moving forward, General”_

Hyunjin keeps her eyes focused ahead, making sure there’s no movement as the team starts to move into the main hall.

It’s silent, save for the sounds of gunfire and explosions outside the command center.

A little too silent, Hyunjin expected this to be the main area where Atlas soldiers would post, but it seems they’re focusing most of their attention outside.

The team silently and slowly move into the hall, Hyunjin motioning for them to split off and move to the sides of the room. She moves to the middle of the room by herself, keeping her eyes trained ahead of her.

She holds her fist up when she hears rounds being fired nearby, “Jiyoon, is that your squad firing?”

The line crackles before going silent.

Hyunjin’s stomach drops, “I repeat, Jiyoon, is that your squad firing?”

_“Fucking hell! These guys are so annoying, what’s the point of shooting rounds at a wall, for fuck’s sake! Yes, we’ve got heavy fire on us, we’re one floor away from the main hall”_

“Understood, are you in need of assistance?”

The line crackles more, _“No- Soeun- Got it- Right there- Jesus I- Seen someone move like that“_

Hyunjin hesitates to close the line, but if she says they’re handling it then she has no choice but to leave it be.

She raises her arm to motion to her team to move forward, but something that sounds like a war cry resounds through the hall. Hyunjin raises her rifle, moving around the center of the room to figure out where it came from.

“ _What the literal fuck was that?”_

Hyunjin motions for Chaewon to stop talking, eyes still trailing over the room and the scaffolding above. She’s about to put her rifle down, sure that it came from somewhere else in the building, but she hears heavy footsteps coming from the other side of the hall.

“Shadow Squad! Fall in and face forward!”

The team follows suit, forming an arrow that faces the opposite side of the hall where the footsteps are growing closer.

They wait patiently until a tall man comes into view, a sick smile plastered on his face.

Heejin and Vivi are at her immediate sides and she feels them freeze.

“God, you’re all just so predictable!”

Hyunjin almost flinches at the volume of the man’s voice, but it doesn’t take long for her to put the pieces together.

Vivi and Heejin are wide-eyed and frozen, staring at the man with so much fear that Hyunjin is starting to get a little worried. Her eyes trail over his body until they find the scar on his forehead.

A perfect circle, like he was shot in the head.

“I don’t know where you all get off on coming in here like you own the damn place, but you’re in the heart of Atlas territory. You’re not leaving here alive”

“Heejin…is that-“

“H-Hansol”

-

Soeun grunts as she pulls her knife from the last soldier, gagging at the slick blood that follows the wound.

“Have I ever mentioned how cool it is when you get irritated like that?”

She sends a glare to Monday, wiping her knife off and putting it back into its holster on her shoulder.

“Have I ever mentioned how insufferable you are when you’re being shot at?”

Jiyoon yelps, bending over at the knees as chuckles wrack her body.

“Not that I don’t appreciate you saving me and trying to lighten the mood with…very poorly placed jokes, but we need to get out of here and help the others”

Soeun turns to Hyejoo, who just finished getting all her equipment on and looks like she’s ready to march right into battle.

The team perks up and finish fixing their equipment before moving back to their original positions. Jiyoon takes the front and they follow as they enter the last stairwell.

Right as Soeun’s foot touches the first step they hear the echo of…someone, or something yelling, and the team freezes.

“What the fuck was that?”

Hyejoo grips at her shoulder, “This mission just got a lot more complicated. Give me your pistol”

Soeun raises her eyebrow at Hyejoo but obeys anyway, handing her gun over to the girl.

“Come on, it’s time to fight some metaphorical demons”

-

“What the fuck?”

Heejin finds herself lowering her rifle, stepping closer to the center of the room as her eyes trail over her not-so-dead ex-boyfriend.

“What? You thought I was dead? Funny thing, Atlas cared a lot more to save me than any of you did. Very nice of you to just run away, by the way. Really shows how much you cared for me!”

“B-But they shot you, i-in the face!”

Hansol rolls his eyes, something that used to make Heejin smile, but now she can only feel her blood boil, “Blah blah, excuses upon excuses. Which one of you is Hyunjin? Very nice to see your face, by the way, Vivi”

“Go fuck yourself”, Vivi sneers.

Under other circumstances, Heejin would have laughed.

Under _these_ circumstances, though, Heejin is only worried about why Hansol wants to know who Hyunjin is.

“I’m Hyunjin”

Heejin doesn’t like the way his face morphs into something angry, something that’s been hidden for a long time.

“So you’re the dyke who’s taken my Heejin away from me-“

Heejin snaps, “Don’t fucking talk to her like that!”

She pulls her rifle back up, pointing it right at Hansol.

He seems taken aback for a moment, a little scared, even, before he throws his hands up in the air, “Heejin, come on! Can’t you see that they’re the enemy? I’ve been searching for you for so long, trying to get you to come back to me, and this is how you want to repay me? By pointing a gun in my face?”

“We thought you were dead!”

“Would it have mattered, though? If you knew I had been looking for you before you met this girl, would you have still gone with her?”

The atmosphere shatters.

Heejin feels the breath leave her lungs at the question.

The truth is, she wouldn’t have gone with Sentinel. If she had known Hansol was alive and out there looking for her she would have turned back without thinking about it. She would’ve run straight into his waiting arms.

Back to Atlas.

She looks to Hyunjin who is already looking at her, eyes full of conflict.

It’s there she decides that it doesn’t matter what she would have done. She’s created a bond with Hyunjin, one she’s not willing to let go of even if Hansol is somehow standing in front of her, healthy as could be. She won’t focus on the what if’s, the truth is that she’s here with Hyunjin and with her family, that Hyejoo is so close to being back with her and Chaewon, that she loves Hyunjin and she knows she feels nothing for Hansol anymore.

She turns back to Hansol with newfound confidence, and she knows by the way his eyebrows furrow that he knows what her decision is.

“You’re making a grave mistake, Heejin-“

She rolls her eyes, “My god, just shut up already!”

A shot rings out, but it doesn’t come from Heejin’s rifle. Her eyes widen, looking to her team members to see if any of them are injured, but everyone seems just as confused as her. She turns back to Hansol, and she understands.

His face grows confused as his body sinks to the ground, both hands coming up to touch the hole in his chest.

“Wha- What have you done?”

“What needed to be done, asshole”

Another shot rings and Hansol’s body falls to the ground with a thud, revealing a very irritated Hyejoo.

“Hyejoo!”

She can see the fatigue take over as Hyejoo sinks to the ground as well, Chaewon sprints over to her as well as Heejin, both girls checking her body for any injuries.

“Sorry, Heej. That one was a long time coming”, Hyejoo says as she hands the pistol back to Soeun.

Heejin purses her lips, “It’s okay, would’ve been me if it hadn’t been you”

“Nah, would’ve been me”, Vivi blurts out, shrugging her shoulders when everyone looks at her incredulously, “What? I never really liked him”

She decides to focus on Hyejoo, who really looks like she could use a shower or a week of sleep. Probably both.

_“Shadow Squad, come in”_

Heejin sighs at the sound of Haseul’s voice, going to respond but someone beats her to it.

_“Shadow Squad reporting, we have Hyejoo and the main hall cleared out”_

Heejin turns to look behind her, her eyes falling on Hyunjin, who is staring at Hansol’s lifeless body.

_“I’m giving the bomb squad the go-ahead to move into the main hall, they’re going to need your help in maintaining position and making sure no one fucks with that bomb”_

_“Understood, moving to standby”_

The rest of the team move to their positions, but Heejin comes up to Hyunjin’s side, gripping her arm gently.

“It doesn’t change anything”, she whispers lowly.

Hyunjin shudders, finally looking away from Hansol and into Heejin’s eyes, “I know, it’s just-“

She stops, Heejin unsure of where she’s going but willing to be patient as she figures it out.

“I’m glad he didn’t hurt you”, is what she says, and Heejin smiles softly.

She playfully pushes at Hyunjin’s shoulder, “I’m glad he didn’t hurt _you”_

_“Shadow Squad, you have at least three units of soldiers coming in after the bomb squad. They’re coming up the steps now, they need assistance immediately”_

And just like that, Heejin forgets about Hansol and follows Hyunjin out of the command center.

-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington


	25. XXV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well here it is everyone! thank you so much to everyone who has supported and read this fic. I hope that everyone has liked it despite its flaws, and I really do appreciate the comments and support I've gotten from everyone <333
> 
> as always let me know what you think :) no warnings for this chapter!

-

_“Shit”_

“What?”

“ _Fuck,_ nothing! Everything’s cool”

Hyunjin rises from her spot in the rubble, making her way over to Haseul and Minkyung.

“What’s wrong?”

Minkyung hangs her head, “I think the detonator is broken”

She feels bile rise to her throat, “What do you mean it’s broken?”

"There's no way we're gonna be able to detonate it from here"

"No, no we have to find a way. Maybe it's just jammed, keep pressing it"

"Hyunjin, I'm telling you I can't detonate it, the thing is broken, the wire must have disconnected or something"

"Shit"

A hand slides down Hyunjin’s face, this is the last thing she was expecting to happen. They had to find a way to detonate it, there were Atlas soldiers still around and on their way from other bases. Maybe not enough to be a complete ambush, but it would still do some damage to EDEN.

They already had trouble getting the bomb into the command center, the thing was huge and needed at least 10 people carrying it at all times. Then they had to deal with the rest of the Atlas soldiers in the base, which wasn’t an easy task considering it was their main base and Hyunjin only had so many soldiers she could rely on.

They had figured it out eventually though, and as they picked off Atlas soldiers one by one, they had gotten the bomb armed and ready. Atlas was sending reinforcements though, thanks to some lone soldier that was hiding out in the comms building. It wasn’t a big group of soldiers, but Hyunjin wasn’t willing to risk it. 

"The only way would be to self-detonate it and we can't do that", Jiwoo explains, her thumbs rubbing over her temples, "We could, but-“

"I'm not sacrificing anyone in this team to go do that. It's a one-way mission", Haseul states firmly, as if to say, 'no one get any ideas'.

Hyunjin stands there silently with Heejin. Haseul is right, she wouldn't be willing to sacrifice anyone on the team to go do it. There was no way anyone would get out of it alive; the self-destruct only gives a minute before it blows up, and the radius is supposed to blow the entire facility off the face of the earth.

It's a literal suicide mission. No one was speaking up, but there was no way to do it besides self-destruct. Haseul wasn't willing to sacrifice anyone, but that didn't mean someone wasn't willing to sacrifice themselves.

“What about an airstrike? If we hit the command center it should blow the bomb right up, right?”

“No, we didn’t plan for airstrikes and it would take them too long to get ready and get here”

“Why don’t we scout their armories for bombs then? There’s gotta be some way to do this, Haseul”

“It has to be set off manually if the detonator won’t work. It’s surrounded by titanium, so even if we did an airstrike or try to set it off ourselves, nothing would penetrate it. And we have to be this far back for it to be safe”

_There’s no other way. It has to be set off manually._

Everything around seems to slow down for Hyunjin. She turns her head to look at Heejin, the setting sun illuminating her face. Hyunjin would never forget that face, the way her eyes practically glow with the sun, how her jawline is contoured perfectly, the way she looked so peaceful now that the major threat was gone.

_"Heejin"_

It's an echo inside of her own head. Heejin's body is in slow motion too. Her ponytail flies in the wind as she turns her head to Hyunjin.

_"I love you"_

A look of confusion slowly sweeps over her face, Hyunjin leans in and plants a firm kiss on the soldier’s lips, trying to savor the moment. When she pulls back there are tears welling up in her eyes, and she starts walking towards Haseul.

_"Hyunjin?"_

Heejin's voice is an echo in her head too, like she's underwater. Her steps seem sluggish, like she's in a dream. All eyes are on her as she grabs the detonator out of Haseul's hand and turns back.

_"I'm sorry"_

She can't bear the look on everyone's faces as they figure out what she's doing. Heejin's face falls, and she starts walking towards Hyunjin. She can hear everyone's rebuttals, either yelling her name or starting to run after her but it's all just echoes in her head. She can hear their footsteps getting closer, so she does the only thing she can do and uses her Exo Ability to punch a hole in the ground to send everyone near her back.

She takes one final look behind her, everyone's faces are pained and confused as they try to stand back up, Jiwoo is holding Heejin back and Sooyoung is just sitting there with tears streaming down her face.

Hyunjin can't bear it, so she turns forward and marches straight back into the base, into the great hall, down the steps, through the winding halls until she finally gets to the bomb. It feels like it takes years, but she eventually finds herself in front of the large, bulky bomb. Tears are now free falling, sobs wracking through her numb body.

She finds the panel for the self-destruct, managing to get it off and the large red button is just staring at her. She feels frozen, unable to move a muscle in her body as the red button screams death at her.

She’s here now though. There's no turning back, no chickening out. There are hundreds of Atlas soldiers on their way, and they can't come back to EDEN still there and their base still standing. She's fought so hard for seven years, doing everything she can to save the people she loves. She has the key to ending the war right in front of her. This base goes down, and most of Atlas goes down. They'll have nothing left, just the guns they have with them and a few trucks. Sentinel will be able to rebuild the world, they'll be able to destroy the rest of Atlas in the North and move on with restoring humanity.

And Hyunjin? She's just a soldier. She's a soldier and soldiers make sacrifices for the people they love and the things they protect. Hyunjin was willing to give up everything for Sooyoung, for Kyungwon, for Yerim, and the whole EDEN group. For Heejin.

For Heejin.

-

The explosion shakes the ground, racks a horrible sensation through the earth like nothing she's ever experienced before. EDEN has already moved back to a safer distance, much to the protest of a screaming Heejin. She's cried all she can now, the only thing left in her she has is the burning sensation in her throat, and one last scream that rips through her body as she watches the base turn into rubble and flames.

She feels like she stays there forever, sitting on the blood-covered ground just staring. Staring at what could've been. Staring at what's left of the love of her life. She doesn't understand. She doesn't understand why Hyunjin would sacrifice herself like that. She had so much to live for, so much to do after the war ended. They were supposed to be together. They were supposed to wake up every morning on the beach with the ocean and the waves. It wasn't supposed to end like this. It should have never ended like this.

The scene is like those in the old movies, the ones from before the world turned into ashes and rubble. There are no words to be said. No thoughts to be thought. Only the rubble of the base to stare at, tiny flames licking at the surface of the earth.

Everyone is exhausted. Most of them are sitting, heads hanging low or eyes staring, tear-filled at the destruction before them.

Heejin feels nothing. Just the heavy feeling in her heart, the feeling of losing her soulmate without knowing why. She feels like she might throw up, maybe pass out from exhaustion or stress. She doesn't know if she can cry anymore, but somehow tears just keep falling and falling.

She can't bear to look at the rubble any longer, so she settles with closing her eyes and digging her fists into the dirt.

-

All Sooyoung can really do is stand there and watch too. Everyone is silent, the only sound in the air is the crackling of the fire in front of them. They just lost their best soldier, the best soldier in the entire unit, the entire Sentinel military.

Sooyoung just lost her best friend and she has no idea why.

This wasn't something Hyunjin would do. Not in a million years and Sooyoung knows it. But Sooyoung also knows that Hyunjin was a true soldier at heart, no matter what happened.

_"No"_

Heejin's trembly voice brings her back to reality, her head turning to see the heartbroken soldier shaking her head.

"No", she says again, this time louder and with more power in her voice.

"Heejin-", Sooyoung tries but she starts standing up, her legs still wobbly.

"No, not like this. She's smarter than this", Sooyoung is taken aback as she watches Heejin find strength in her body and starts walking towards the destroyed base.

"Heejin there's no way-"

"No, stop!"

Sooyoung practically feels everyone flinch at the power in Heejin's voice. She starts going after her, she doesn't want Heejin to face whatever damage the bomb did and not find Hyunjin within the rubble.

"Heejin stop, there's no use", she tries to reach for her arm, but Haseul's firm hand stops her.

"Let her go", Sooyoung is surprised to hear the tremble in her captain’s voice, let alone the tears streaming down her face.

They all watch as Heejin makes her way to where the front door of the base was, clumsily tripping over the fallen rocks and rubble. They watch her stand silent for a few moments before she starts screaming, kicking the rubble away with everything she has inside of her. They all watch her climb over everything, Sooyoung makes her way over to her just to make sure she doesn't hurt herself or do anything stupid.

It’s a heartbreaking sight, especially since everyone present knows what Hyunjin meant to Heejin, what Heejin meant to Hyunjin. Sooyoung has to hold back her sobs as she watches Heejin lose it, screaming and crying at her loss.

But she watches anyway. She watches Heejin mumble to herself, lifting up random pieces of rubble like she'll find something besides more rubble. And she thinks it's pointless, she thinks Heejin should just stop and try to deal with it, but she's also having a hard time believing that her best friend just sacrificed herself for the entire country.

-

Heejin has a hard time believing it, has a hard time processing that her girlfriend, the best thing that has ever happened to her, her literal soulmate, is now dead. Dead and never coming back.

She has a hard time believing it when she can feel Jinsol and Sooyoung behind her. She has a hard time believing it when Jinsol pulls on Sooyoung’s arm, her finger outstretched and pointing to somewhere in the rubble.

"Haseul!" Sooyoung gives Jinsol a confused look, turning back to see Haseul and Minkyung sprinting towards them.

And time slows down again. It slows down as Heejin falls to her knees, watching Haseul, Jinsol, and Minkyung jump over the rubble somewhere to the left. It slows down as the rubble starts moving, the ground shaking and a bright yellow light finds its way through the cracks of the rock.

But it speeds up when another explosion flings everyone back a good 10 yards, and dry coughing can be heard from up ahead.

Heejin's heart picks up, she uses every amount of energy left in her body to lift herself up and sprint to the low yellow light. She throws the rubble back, digging and digging until the light gets brighter and brighter.

And the sight before her, when she picks the rubble away, when her heart picks up even faster as Hyunjin's tired, brown eyes stare up at her, when she scrambles to pull her soulmate from the gravel, she can't help but let out a sob of joy.

She doesn't care that it seems impossible that Hyunjin is alive. She doesn't care, she only cares that what she thought was over, is only just beginning. Because somehow, someway, Hyunjin survived and she's staring at her with such deep love that Heejin can't believe it.

And she really can't believe it when they press their lips together, when Heejin thought she was never going to feel the sparks that Hyunjin’s touch gave her again, she cries tears of joy.

Because now, now they can rebuild the world. Now she can be happy with Hyunjin, she can move to the California coast with Hyunjin and wake up to the sunlight streaming through a window and illuminating her smooth skin.

Now, she can be peaceful. Now, she can be happy. Now, she can kiss Hyunjin goodnight without feeling the fear of trying to survive tomorrow.

And to her, that's all she wanted in the world. 

To her, this is what she thinks heaven finally feels like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you can yell at me here:  
> twt @kimlippington  
> ig @kimberlylippington

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!
> 
> As always, you can find me on twitter @kimlippington or on instagram @kimberlylippington


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